i i 11 | E \ 

Afltir 

iv i 1 , 

1 i Hi I l I ! 


TN 

23 

<Xg 


















































































































































. 




































































































































































































Columban A. Johnson 











Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 
Our Natural Resources 

BY 

COLUMBAN A. JOHNSON 

it 

GEOLOGIST 


* 
\k 

** Jt 


PITTSBURGH 
Charles W. Swope, Printer 
1921 


ss-'iasM 



Copyright 1921 
by Columban A. Johnson 


9 


©CU654217 

JAN 10 1922 



| 


PREFACE 


As a servant of humanity, and for its best good, 
without thought of selfish gain, only reimbursement for 
labor and expense incurred, I have prepared and pub¬ 
lished this book. It covers subjects vital to our best 
interests. I have given this book my best thought, and 
am sure that a careful study of its pages will help my 
readers to a better understanding of Nature's laws and 
the wonderful possibilities open to mankind in the de¬ 
veloping of untouched resources in the realms of nature. 

After making a careful examination and study of 
the coal, oil, and gas fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
West Virginia, the writer has been convinced without a 
doubt that there are many new fields that have never 
been developed; and if the proper locations are made in 
the folds of the hills, the present production of these 
vital necessities will be increased three-fold. 

COLUMBAN A. JOHNSON, Geologist, 
Latrobe, Pa. 


McKeesport Address 
Box 156. 



CONTENTS 


Chapter 

I, 

Creation - 

- 

Page 0 

Chapter 

II, 

Formation ( f Coal 

- 

12 

Chapter 

III, 

Alaska Ot ce a Tropical < lime - 

- 

14 

Chapter 

IV, 

Caverns - 

- 

22 

Chapter 

V, 

Glacier Periods - 

- 

30 

Chapter 

VI, 

Geological Data 

- 

32 

Chapter 

VII, 

Coal and Coke - 

- 

35 

Chapter 

VIII. 

Al’egh ny Formation 

- 

47 

Chapter 

IX, 

Oil and Gas - 

- 

54 

Chapter 

X, 

Natural Gas and the Atmosph re 

- 

72 

Chapter 

XI. 

E'ec tricity - 

- 

85 

Chapter 

XII, 

Trees, Plants. Foliage, Flowers 

- 

103 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Columhan A. Johnson, Geologist - Page 2 

Coal, 18,000 By-products - - - - - 21 

Distillation of Coal Bv-producfs ----- 20 

An Old Settler's Home ------ •-!(» 

Logging of Geological Strata - - - - -58 

Gusher on Ranger Field, Texas ----- 55 

Oil Shale in Utah ------ 50 

Plant Producing Oil from Shale - - - - - 70 

Table of Chemical Formulae ----- 00 

Apartment House of a Thousand Rooms - - - 100 




Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 
Our Natural Resources 


CHAPTER I 
CREATION 

MINERAL, VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE 

The All-wise Creator of the Universe, during the 
periods of creation, which may have been thousands of 
years, placed within the openings in the bowels and 
strata of the earth many mysteries. As we delve into 
these mysterious chambers we discover forms of life 
which include coal, gas, oil, sulphur, salt, iron, copper, 
and various other minerals. They are produced by 
chemical action on the various strata of earth. In the 
compounding of the chemicals producing these different 
products, the mineral product into which predominating 
elements in the various component parts are formed, 
will take the nature of the stronger element. There¬ 
fore, coal is produced where coal elements predominate 
and gas where gas elements predominate. These lower 
species of life are dependent one upon the other for exis¬ 
tence, just as the higher forms of life are dependent 
one upon the other for development and growth. As 
we approach the surface of the earth we find, in the 
higher forms of life, one mineral feeding upon the 
other and producing a more valuable mineral. 

When we reach the surface of the earth we find a 
higher form of life which we term the vegetable king¬ 
dom ; and we find that this form of life which manifests 
itself in growth of buds, flowers, and fruitage is depend¬ 
ent absolutely upon the elements: carbon, gas, and other 


9 



10 


Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 


chemicals contained in the soil, covering from 18 inches 
to several feet of the surface. In the ground immedi¬ 
ately underlying the productive soil we find the lowest 
form of animal life, worms and various kinds of insects, 
which come to the surface in the springtime after early 
rains and the melting of snow followed by the warm 
sun. 

In this surface soil are produced all kinds of vege¬ 
table life. The grass, which is per-ennial, is Nature's 
first production; then come the wild flowers, and the 
shrubbery, fastening their roots in the soft loam; and 
the larger trees, often sending their roots down through 
the sub-soil to a depth of many feet in order to find a 
substantial foundation for their trunks towering toward 
the sky. Surface soil is fertilized by natural processes. 
The decaying of vegetation makes the soil very fertile 
and thus produces all kinds of vegetable life; and under 
the skilled hand of the expert agriculturist its produc¬ 
tiveness may be maintained indefinitely and increased 
many fold. Fruitage of vegetables, grains, and edible 
fruits of every kind supplies all animal life with the 
required variety of foods needed to sustain life and 
develop growth. 

The animals and fowls feeding upon the grass, 
grains, and fruits produced by nature and increased 
by the supplementing of man's genius and skill are fat¬ 
tened and prepared for man's use, as Nature responds 
to her own sacrificial laws; “Go forth and subdue the 
earth." Unselfishly laboring with heart and hand 
brings to their highest fruition the plans of the Master 
Mind of creation, the development of mineral, vegetable, 
and animal life, blessings to mankind, progress and 
prosperity, and the commendation of the Creator upon 
his labors. 

REFORESTRY—THE NEED OF THE HOUR 

The extravagant and even wasteful manner of cut¬ 
ting and using the most valuable trees has almost de- 


Our Natural Resources 


11 


nuded our forests of such superior woods as the Walnut, 
Oak, Hickory, and Locust. Of these the walnut is the 
most valuable, having been used largely in the manufac¬ 
turing of fine furniture during the past fifty years. 
At this time there is hardly a walnut tree of usable 
size to be found in the forests of Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
or West Virginia. The hickory, the white oak, and the 
locust are still to be found in limited numbers; but it is 
imperative that immediate steps be taken to rehabili¬ 
tate these valuable species of trees for the comfort and 
welfare of future generations. Reforestry is the crying 
need of the hour, especially the reproducing of these 
very valuable species. 

A serious menace to the less valuable and yet useful 
trees, which may be called more domestic in their en¬ 
vironment, growing in our yards, and on city lots, in 
our large cities and suburbs, is the smoke nuisance. 
The great factories, coke ovens, and furnaces belching 
forth immense volumes of smoke, graphite and other 
verdure-destroying elements are tending to destroy 
forests and domestic trees, valuable largely for the 
beautifying and shading of our streets and yards. We 
rejoice to know that some effort is being made to elim¬ 
inate and neutralize excess smoke and everyone should 
unite heartily in any movement toward the preservation 
of forests and domestic trees and shrubbery for the pro¬ 
tection of human life and health. 


CHAPTER II 


THE FORMATION OF COAL, OIL, GAS AND OTHER 
MINERALS 

In the area covering Western Pennsylvania, the 
Allegheny formation bounds the Conemaugh on the 
north and extends far down the valleys in the overlying 
formation. It is also found in irregular extension to 
the West Virginia line, where it is brought to light by 
the acute folds of that region. Most geologists go to 
West Virginia for bearings and courses of the Allegheny 
formation. The formation of the contours, and closely 
folded anticlinals and wide extensions lead through the 
state of Pennsylvania. The synclines and their long 
extensions, as the rivers change their courses, record 
the gigantic convulsions of Nature which took place 
during the periods of the formation of coal, oil, and 
gas as well as the different minerals. 

The coal is formed by the trees, plants, and shrub¬ 
bery during each period and age. Each specie of tree 
has different elements and a different chemical compo¬ 
sition, which in fact accounts for the derivation of 
over 18,000 coal by-products; as the lower measures 
are closer to the earth in its smoldering state. The 
center of the earth is also the center of a great heat at 
that time permeating its entire mass. The successive 
beds of coal were formed in a similar manner, but at 
different periods of time, the ascending measures being 
closer to the center of the earth. The vegetable life 
of the earth was covered by the great upheavals of the 
earth itself. These layers of vegetable life were then 
subject to the internal heat, which produced a charring 
action, turning the vegetable life into a form of carbon. 
The tremendous pressure of the overlying masses tend¬ 
ed to compress this carboniferous mass, which resulted 


12 


Our Natural Resources 


13 


in the formation of coal, and the gradual changing of 
the climate during each period until the coal beds 
were formed. 

SELECT ROCK LAYER IN THE ALLEGHENY FORMATION 

If it were possible to remove all the rock lying 
above any selected rock such as the Lower Freeport, it 
would be found that the top layer formed a surface like 
that of a gentle rolling country consisting of long ex¬ 
tended valleys, low rounded ridges or swells. These 
conditions appear on the Fayette anticlinal, known as 
the Indiana anticlinal, and elsewhere. 

The long extended valleys and their foldings indi¬ 
cate that the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes were 
at one period of time joined, Lake Erie running far 
into Pennsylvania between gentle rounded valleys. The 
ridges and valleys would be found in Western Pennsyl¬ 
vania to have a general extension of north-east and 
south-west. Some of the valleys would be found to be 
very long, extending sometimes half way across the 
states; but in all cases the ridges would nose out so as 
to be nearly parallel. Further examination of the ridges 
running together would show that these lines were the 
axes of a major valley or basin. Geologists recognize 
that in these long extended valleys and ridges are folds 
formed by pressure from the southeast and from the 
Gulf of Mexico; the pressure of the Atlantic Ocean 
forming the Blue Ridge. 

To the upfolds the name anticlines was given, 
and to the downfolds synclines. The direction of the 
slope at any point is the dip descending from the top 
of fhe Pittsburgh Coal to the Upper Freeport Coal, a 
distance of 620 feet, showing the greatest disturbance 
of any of the measures of the coal beds, the changing 
of the rivers in their^burses, and data which points to 
a well. 


CHAPTER III 


ALASKA WAS A TROPICAL CLIMATE DURING 
THE PERIODS 

There is a well-founded belief that Alaska was a 
tropical climate during a period of time; the theory 
arises from the formation of the coal beds and the oil 
and gas. 

The forests of our country are found on the Alle¬ 
gheny, Blue Ridge and Adirondack mountains and 
throughout the great major basins and valleys adjacent 
thereto with their massive trees and abundant foliage, 
even to the glistening peaks of the Rocky Mountains 
of the far west with their wild canyons and rapid¬ 
flowing river, plowed deep by the glaciers and fed about 
the base of these giant peaks and deep valleys over 
wide areas in the mountain and lowlands of our conti¬ 
nent. Beginning with a scientific description and topo¬ 
graphical study of the growth and environment of the 
forests with their petrified formations of trees and 
fossils representing in nature, mineral, vegetable and 
even animal life throughout the past ages, scientific 
men in recent times have set themselves to the task of 
solving these so-called nature problems which are vital 
to the priceless fuel and mineral deposits, which man 
has found enrolded in the body of the earth. Included 
is a brief study of the modulations of the earth’s crust, 
the growth of our forests and the various chemical 
deposits undergone in the different species from the 
first periods of the coal ages of the earth’s crust down 
to the present day formations, including the changing 
conditions of the various formations of the coal beds 
during the periods of nature’s convulsions, changing 
the carboniferous masses and elementary substances 


14 


Our Natural Resources 


15 


of the charred elements and the species of vegetable 
life, converting and carbonizing the organic substances 
into carbon and coal through combustion, by the action 
of fire and chemical action of salt water from the un¬ 
settled oceans, together yielding many by-products 
which may be discovered through a process of distilla¬ 
tion of the coal. 

The synclinal and anticlinal waves throughout 
these great major basins and valleys have made pos¬ 
sible the collection and forming of the oil in enormous 
pools and confinement of natural gas in the immeasure- 
able natural strata and folds of the earth. 

In parts of Alaska and many of the north and 
southwestern states, such as South Dakota, among the 
heavy timbers in the Black Hills and petrified forests 
and fossils east of the Hills, about fifty miles, are the 
so-called “Bad Lands.” Unique in all the formations 
cf the earth’s surface, they are termed bad because 
they possess no agricultural merit; they are unsightly 
and are difficult to explore, but in no area of the world’s 
suiface, it is said, have been found so much of fossil 
remains—hippopotamus, rhinoceros and such animals 
which have not for ages inhabited the lands or the 
waters of North America. Many of these fossils are 
shown in our best eastern museums. Remains of fish 
show that some of these spots must have been lake 
beds. 

Yellowstone Lake, an expansion of the Yellow¬ 
stone River, and the petrified forests of Wyoming con¬ 
tain many petrified trees and fossils, found in the north¬ 
ern part of the state. These petrified remains have 
been found in the many western states, 600 feet of 
rock formation oveUying the petrified forests. The 
petrified trees being found sometimes standing per¬ 
pendicular showing the former growths and environ- 
rr.en of the forest during the ages. 

Most of the forests located in national parks and 
timber land reserves, growing hardwoods: burr oak, 


16 


Coal, Oil , Gas and Electricity 


linden, Norway maple, green ash, wild cherry, larch, 
American elm, black walnut, hackberry and honey 
lccust, and such evergreens as Scotch pine, white pine, 
Norway spruce, Colorado blue spruce, white spruce, red 
cedar, arbor vitae. Yellowstone Park was set aside to 
belong to the people forever, and in this playground of 
nature many beautiful birds find sanctuary and chant 
their sweet melodies in these primeval forests. Five 
thousand, five hundred and seventy-five square miles is 
under the jurisdiction of the government and Congress 
has established rules and regulations for the preserva¬ 
tion of the park, animals and birds. 

This park is one* of the four regions in the world 
where there are large groups of geysers. About 100 
active hot springs and geysers are found within Yellow¬ 
stone, and they vary greatly; some cover acres whilst 
others have very small surfaces. There are three dis¬ 
tinct geyser basins: the upper geyser basin is the most 
active and contains the noted spouters; the middle 
geyser basin contains no cones but has a steaming 
abyss of limestone formation about 30 feet deep which 
is known as “Hell’s Half Acre.” Four or five times 
each day the Grand gives astonishing exhibits, and it 
is the park’s most powerful geyser. 

Mammoth hot springs are in the northern part of 
the Yellowstone Park and the terraces are marvels of 
gorgeous coloring where the hot water ripples over the 
unique, scalloped formations. Yellowstone Lake, an 
expansion of Yellowstone River, is a magnificent body 
of water said to have a shore line of 300 miles; but it 
has never been entirely explored. Many other lakes 
are in this lovely region, which is our very finest Nation¬ 
al Park. Its geysers exceed those of Iceland, and here 
are found caverns which contain beautiful stalagmites 
and stalactites. Many mineral springs of cold, spark¬ 
ling water are also found here. The park extends 
beyond Wyoming’s state lines about three miles on the 
north and eleven miles on the west. Six miles from 


Our Natural Resour css 


17 


the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which is ten 
miles in length, is sulphur mountain, an immense moun¬ 
tain of pure sulphur crystal. Steaming springs play 
at its base. 

There are about twenty high peaks in Yellowstone 
Park. The headwaters of several large rivers are in 
this wonderful reserve, and the Continental Divide 
marks the separation of these waters. Among the 
mysteries of the rippling waves of the earth’s crust 
within the state of Wyoming are immense natural re¬ 
sources. Her coal reserves are so enormous that they 
are important factors in the wealth of the state. Oil, 
natural gas, gold, silver and most of the precious metals 
are found here in great quantities. Mineral deposits 
and giant massive trees and fossils of the petrified 
tropical forests of the formative periods and ages 
appear in Wyoming, Oregon, Arizona and many of the 
states in the area included in the region of the Rockies. 

By a study of the earth’s crust the mineral depos¬ 
its and temperatures all over this country, scientists 
have found quite a number of hot spots where volcanic 
heat is manifestly accountable for records obtained in 
deep mines and by lowering thermometers into artesian 
wells. This is not at all surprising when it is consid¬ 
ered that not so very long ago much of our far western 
country was fairly aflame with eruptive fires, a fact 
evidenced by numerous “cinder cones” and volcanoes 
rather recently extinguished and by sheets of lava 
thousands of feet thick, which are spread over thou¬ 
sands of square miles. These evidences of dead vol¬ 
canoes are frequent. Owing, as is supposed, to a vol¬ 
canic cause, in the Snake River valley of Idaho, the 
existence of numerous hot springs is referred to water 
that comes up boiling from the depths through fissures 
in the rocky strata. Many wells in Owyhee County 
yield warm water, plainly owing to lava flow, the region 
being one of comparatively recent volcanic activities. 
For instance, Stromboli, which is now throwing ofl 


13 Coal , Oil, Gas and Electricity 

various kinds of minerals, as well as large quantities of 
water. 

One should expect from the seepage through the 
fissures and strata of the earth’s crust into the active 
volcano, and burning mountains produced by permitting 
eruptings throwing off quantities of water by the cool¬ 
ing and condensation of the heat, that the gases rising 
through the vents and strata in conjunction with the 
volcanic dust thrown high in the air during an eruption 
being so finely divided, that much of it would float in 
the upper levels of the atmosphere. Its particles seem 
mostly to be minute bubbles, hollow inside. Together 
with water, volcanoes emit vast quantities of lava mud 
which hardens into rock. This forms what is called 
sedimentary lava, a material which in part of our own 
west covers great areas to a depth of thousands of 
feet. Volcanic sedimentary product is pumice, which 
is so porous and so light in weight that it will float on 
water. Another is obsidian or volcanic glass, a sub¬ 
stance of the same chemical composition as pumice, 
but extremely hard, being of high density. The sedi¬ 
ment of the eruptive rocks, represents material thrown 
up from great depths. In conjunction with the mineral 
deposits of the earth such rocks are practically im¬ 
pervious to water, whereas the sedimentary substance 
shale and rock are sufficiently porous to allow water 
to percolate through them. It is these rock formations 
that contain the so-called pools of petroleum, usually 
with water underlying the oil. 

In Utah the “Dead Sea of America,” a great salt 
lake, covers 2,00 square miles. Three rivers flow into 
the lake, but none flows out. The water escapes only 
by evaporation and seepage through the strata, making 
it so heavy that one cannot sink in this brine. It con¬ 
tains one pound of salt in every five pounds of water. 
A dearth of moisture and consequent scarcity of tim¬ 
ber and verdure have been the most serious drawbacks 
from the beginning. There are many natural wonders 


Our Natural Resources 


19 


here in the way of canons, bridges and stone forma¬ 
tions and a saturated mountain of sedimentary oil 
shale of the formative period, from the earth’s crust. 
The same can be said of the many states east of the 
Rocky Mountains relative to the formative periods of 
the earth leveling the major basins and valleys during 
the convulsions of nature, taking place during each 
formative period of the coal ages from the earth’s crust 
to the present formation. The minerals treasured in 
the mountains permits Utah to take her place among 
the mining commonwealths of the Union. 

Many of our eastern and southern states, including 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, with their 
great coal beds, mineral deposits and petrified remains 
of trees, leaves and fossils overlying the Pittsburgh 
coal measures, covering a depth of many feet. The 
species of the trees such as the chestnut, oak and vari¬ 
ous other kinds during the periods reduced the vege¬ 
table life to a charring action by the chemical process 
of the heat units, leaving them undergoing a petrified 
state and showing many species of the trees and leaves 
of the forest as perfect in form and appearance as they 
were almost in their original completed growth. The 
petrified vegetable life when becoming petrified, the 
substance being absorbed into the earth, left the re¬ 
maining substance in a solid rock formation, only to 
produce a mineral of a different nature in conjunction 
with the mineral deposits of the earth. The distilla¬ 
tion of the vegetable life during their growth and 
environment and abundant foliage and tropical fruit 
undergo through life a process of the heat units, throw¬ 
ing off the liquid fuel substance and form the oil pools, 
and the compounding of the chemical elements and 
substance uniting together with the various growths, 
in conjunction with the mineral deposits and chemical 
elements of the earth forming the coal measures and 
various minerals the veins of limestone, granite, onyx, 
asbestos, copper, lead, etc., and the precious metals, 


20 


Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 


gold, silver, radium, platinum and the diamond, the 
most valuable mineral treasured in the mountains and 
fed about the feet of the giant peaks in the strata and 
folds of the earth. This phenomena in nature has 
puzzled geologists and scientists of the past centuries 
and this mystery has never been fully explained and 
perhaps will remain a mystery to the end of time. 

Pittsburgh’s industrial center, in the Allegheny 
formation, is the world’s workshop, leads in tonnage 
and holds the record for finished aluminum, radium and 
vanadium. It has the world’s biggest plants devoted to 
structural steel, glass, airbrakes, electrical supplies, and 
is the national plumbing supply center. However, old 
King Coal is the chief industrial wealth of the state, 
and the by-products and the mineral deposits treasured 
in the stratas and folds of the earth during the con¬ 
vulsions of nature, forming the various beds and meas¬ 
ures of limestone, marble, granite and iron ore, etc. 

The limestone is formed by the ash of the charred 
organic and elementary substance of vegetable life, 
subject to a process of the heat units. The marble is 
formed by the ash of the softer species of the organic 
substance of the tropical growths by the same process 
of distillation. Our great granite beds and measures of 
the New England States, Quincy and Barie granite, the 
softer formation of the various measures of the South 
and the solid, flinty formation of the great west are 
formed by the giant weeds and substance of plant life 
in conjunction with the mineral deposits of the earth. 
Our great iron beds are formed by the organic sub¬ 
stance and tropical pines. 

Crossing the Bay from San Francisco in the direc¬ 
tion of Sausalito one sees in a distance the most enor¬ 
mous species of sculpture in the world, the figure of 
beauty of nature, wonderfully realistic, of the eruptive 
rocks, representing material thrown up from the great 
depths throughout the area of the Rocky Mountains 
and valleys, with their massive mineral deposits of the 


Out Natural Resources 


21 


formative periods—the designment of art and placing 
in creation of beauty enfolded in the stratas and realms 
of nature treasured in the earth. 



COAL, 16,000 BY-PRODUCTS 




























CHAPTER IV 


CAVERNS 

The earth underwent great convulsions and 
brought about conditions changing many of the high 
altitudes of the Allegheny, Blue Ridge, Adirondacks and 
Rocky Mountains. The emigrating of the mineral de¬ 
posits carried down and fed upon the basins and valleys, 
forming many anticlinals, low rounded ridges and swells 
and famous American caves of our great continent. 

Among the ones of worthy mention are the famous 
Mammoth Cave in Edmondson County, near Green 
River, about seventy-five miles from Louisville, Ken¬ 
tucky. It was discovered in 1809. Its entrance is 
reached by passing down a wild, rocky ravine, through 
a dense forest. The cave extends some nine miles, 
already explored and traversed, and requires 150 to 
200 miles of travel. The cave contains a succession of 
wonderful avenues, chambers, domes, abysses, grot¬ 
toes, lakes, rivers, cataracts, and other marvels, which 
are too well known to need any more reference than 
when, behold! the eruptive rocks designed in nature 
formed these famous caves. One chamber—the Star— 
is about 500 feet long, 70 feet wide, 70 feet high, the 
ceiling of which is composed of black gypsum and is 
studded with innumerable white points that by a dim 
light resemble stars; hence the name of the chamber. 

There are avenues one and a half and even two 
miles in length, some of which are encrusted with 
beautiful formations and present the appearance of 
enchanted palace halls. There is a natural tunnel about 
three-quarters of a mile long and 100 feet wide, cov¬ 
ered with a ceiling of smooth rock 45 feet high. There 
is a chamber having an area of from four to five acres, 
and there are domes 200 and 300 feet high. 


22 


Our Natural Resources 


23 


Echo River is some three-fourths of a mile in 
length, 200 feet in width at points, and from 10 to 30 
feet in depth, and runs beneath an arched ceiling of 
smooth rock about 15 feet high; while the Styx, an¬ 
other river, is 450 feet long, from 15 to 40 feet wide, 
and from 30 to 40 feet deep, and is spanned by a 
natural bridge. Lake Lethe has about the same length 
and width as the river Styx, varies in depth from 3 
to 40 feet, lies beneath a ceiling some 90 feet above its 
surface, and sometimes rises to a height of 60 feet. 
There is also a Death Sea, quite a somber body of 
water. 

There are several interesting caves in the neigh¬ 
borhood, one three miles long, and three each, about a 
mile in length. Many caves, rivers and cavities are 
found within the area of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 
The transmutation of the masses and pressure thrust 
upon the overlying formation of the formative period, 
being of a more gentle folding while these conditions 
were taking place in the lower elevations, and the clos¬ 
ing up of the greater area in the overlying formation, 
and the gradual cooling of the structure at a greater 
altitude, leaving the underlying stratas of a softer 
nature going through a longer process of cooling and 
petrification, formed these famous caves, rivers and 
cavities within our great continent. 

Wyandotte Cave is in Jennings Township, Craw¬ 
ford County, Indiana, near the Ohio River. It is a 
rival of the great Mammoth Cave in grandeur and 
extent. Explorations have been made for many miles. 
It excels the Mammoth Cave in the number and variety 
of its stalagmites and stalactites, and in the size of 
several of its chambers. One of these chambers is 350 
feet in length, 245 feet in height and contains a hill 
175 feet high, on which are three fine stalagmites. 
Epsom salt, niter, and alum have been obtained from 
the earth of the cave. The Epsom, niter and alum is 
obtained from the caves, cavities and stratas of the 


24 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


earth. These mineral deposits are the residue of the 
salt water from the unsettled oceans by simmering and 
settling into the lower elevations and undergoing a 
process of petrification, thus forming a solid mass in 
the rock formation. 

Howe’s Cave is situated thirty-nine miles from 
Albany, N. Y., and perhaps was the dwelling place of 
Rip Van Winkle, who slept within the area in the 
quietude of slumber of silent night for twenty years 
in the famous mountains. 

Luray Cave, Virginia, and the Mammoth Cave, 
Kentucky, are probably the most remarkable caverns 
known. Discovered in the year 1842, it is related, pene¬ 
trated to a distance of eleven or twelve miles. The 
cave is lighted by gas as far as a body of water called 
the Stygian Lake. The entrance is about fifty feet 
above the valley and the rock chambers known as the 
Reception Room, Washington Hall, the Bridal Chamber 
and the Chapel, are successively reached. Then the 
Harlequin Tunnel is traversed, and the visitors pass 
through Cataract Hall and various rooms. The Stygian 
Lake is 10 feet deep, and is 30 by 20 in extent. Fine 
stalagmites appear both above and below the lake. 
The visitor crosses the lake in a small boat, landing on 
Plymouth Rock. The path follows a small brook and 
traverses the chambers and passages known as Devil’s 
Gateway, Geological Room, Giants’ Study, and Pirates’ 
Hall. 

One of the great wonders of our continent and 
even of the world are the towering mountains of Amer¬ 
ica, which have been formed during the early periods 
by the earth’s convulsions and volcanic eruptions. 

These eruptive rocks, representing many kinds of 
minerals, have during these periods been fed down 
upon the basins and into the valleys from the higher 
altitudes, while the mountains have been in eruption 
and the wh®le area surrounding the mountains in con¬ 
vulsions. 


Our Natural Resources 


25 


Within the area of the Rocky Mountains in the 
western section of our country we find the most won¬ 
derful transformations due to nature’s immutable laws. 
Likewise, we find many of the highest and most rugged 1 
peaks on the continent. These representative moun¬ 
tains of the west and many peaks in our Atlantic Coast 
ranges demonstrate to geologists and to nature lovers 1 
the sublime grandeur of nature’s laws, and they fully 
appreciate the benefits resulting from these early dis¬ 
turbances, which in the first periods transmuted and 
transformed these necessary materials and minerals, 
distributing them equitaly and lavishly into the basins 
and valleys even to the earth’s crust. 

Wealth of minerals and richness of adjacent soil 
invites the courageous pioneer to exploitation, develop¬ 
ment and assured success. 

The height of some of the most noted peaks in 
the various ranges east and west are herewith indicated 1 


for the reader’s information. 

Mt. St. Elias of Alaska_17,900 feet 

Mt. Shasta_14,450 “ 

Mt. Whitney _15,000 “ 

Long Peak, Cal._13,400 “ 

Pike’s Peak, Col_ 14,320 “ 

Fremont Peak, Wyoming_13,570 “ 

Mt. St. Helen, Oregon_10,158 “ 

Mt. Hood, Oregon_ 11,570 “ 

Mt. Rainer, Washington_13,000 “ 

Mt. Washington, New Hampshire_ 6,234 “ 

Mt. Marcy, New York_ 5 467 “ 

Mt. Mansfield, Vermont_- 4,280 “ 

Mt. Otter, Virginia_‘ 4,260 “ 


It is a scientific fact that the earth underwent 
natural convulsions, accompanied by great fires and 
floods. This gives rise to an explanation of the finding 
of petrified bones of the pre-historic animals. It is 1 
assumed that during the periods of convulsion the 1 
animals then inhabiting the earth, terrified and seek- 
















CARBON 

DISULPHIDE 

BENZOL 

TOLVOL 

XYLOL 

SULPHUR 

CYANOGEN 

ILLUMINATING 

GAS 

FUEL GAS 


DISTILLATION 

BY-PRODUCTS FOUND 

I N 

COAL 


metallurgical 

COKE 

DOMESTIC COKE 
COKE BRIQUETTES 


ELECTRODES 

LAMP BLACK 

:oke|oven coke 


ANHYBROUS 

AMMONIA 

AQUA 

AMMONIA 

AMMONIUM 

SULPHATE 

AMMONIUM 

NITRATE 

AMMONIUM 

BICARBONATE 

AMMONIUM 

CARBONATE 

AMMONIUM 

CHLORIDE 


AM 
LIQUOR 


LUBRICANT 

CRUCIBLE 


ELECTRODE 


TAR 


LIGHT OIL 


HEAVY OIL 


CRUDE 
CARBOLIC 
ACID 
CREOSOTE OIL 
ANTHRACENE OIL 
LAMP BLACK 


DISINFECTANTS 

PHENOL 


PURO BENZOL 
DYESTUFFS 
PIERIC ACID 
ANILINE 
NITROBENZOL 


REFINED 

TAR 


PAINTS 
TARRED FELT 
PIPE COATING 
SUB FLOORING 
SIDEWALK 
COMPOSITION 
PAVING MATERIALS 


CRUDE CARBOLIC 


WOOD 

PRESERVATIVE 
ANTHRACENE 
LUBRICATING 
GREESE 
CRUDE ANTHRACENE 
ANTHRACENE 
ANTHRSQUINONE 
ALIZARIN 
DYESTUFFS 


PURE TOLOUL 
EXPLOSIVES 
T. N.T. 

NITRO TOLOUL 
PERFUMES 
BENZOIC ACID 
ANTISEPTIC 
CRESOLS 
SALICYIIC ACID 
ASPIRIN 
FLAVORINGS 

photo developer 

DYESTUFFS 

PrIENACETIN 


ACID 


NEUTRAL OIL 


FLOTATION OIL 


\ MIDDLE OIL 

LAMP BLACK 
CRUDE 

NAPTHALENE 


PITCH 


SOFT PITCH 
MEDIUM PITCH 
HARD PITCH - 


PAINT THINNERS 

SHINGLE STAINS 

REFINED 

NAPTHALENE 

MOTH BALLS 

DYESTUFFS 

INDIGO 


18,000 BY-PRODUCTS 


BUTTER COMPOUND 
CORE COMPOUND 
TARGETS 


SULPHUR MINERAL 

PENNSYLVANIA 
C A-IONDS 

























































Our Natural Resources 


27 


i::g refuge from the fires and floods, sheltered them¬ 
selves in caves and hollows, and were there overcome, 
being either consumed by the fire or drowned by the 
floods. Animals whose bodies were consumed of course 
left no trace to history, but those drowned by the 
floods of salt water from the unsettled oceans under¬ 
went a process of petrifaction; and the convulsions of 
nature taking place covered over their skeletons, pre¬ 
serving them in a protecting casing of earth. Many 
of these have been uncovered in recent years. 

We know for certain that the earth was still in 
process of formation or settling to its present shape 
and composition from the fact that often remains of 
animals and plants are found embedded in solid masses 
of granite, slate, and other flinty formation of rock, 
impossible of penetration in their present day forma¬ 
tion except by use of tools and explosives. 

OTHER ALLEGHENY MOUNTAIN CAVERNS 

Penn’s Cave, near Bellefonte, Pa., is famous as a 
sight-seeing cavern in the limestone hills. Many tour¬ 
ists are attracted to this interesting place, and of late 
years it has become popular on account of its being 
easily reached by automobile travel. At Mapleton, Pa., 
the Mapleton Cave in the rugged hills of Jack’s Moun¬ 
tains, a branch of the Alleghenies, is entered through 
the yards of the Swope-Gayton Quarry Co. The cav¬ 
ern is about a mile long and contains many rooms 
large enough to enclose a good-sized building. It also 
includes a stream of water that falls to unknown depths 
within the cave. This cavern is famous for the great 
number and size of its stalactites and stalagmites, and 
for columns joining the floor and arched roof. These 
have been formed through the ages by the depositing 
and hardening of the sediment of the limestone water. 

PEAKS 

Many explanations of geologists and scientists of 


28 Coal, Oily Gas and Electricity 

the grandeur and mineral deposits of the great chain 
of mountains do not have the ability to cope with and 
fully describe the infinitude of creation in the realms 
of nature and its laws, failing to portray in words and 
fully express the beauty they behold. The trees, plants, 
and abundant foliage in their environment and design- 
ment in nature, the eruptive rocks and acute folds, 
stretching far away in the distance in all directions, 
and the famous mountain scenery breath a spirit of 
admiration and freedom into the bosom and heart of 
all mankind. Only the admirers and lovers of natural 
philosophy can fully appreciate the beauty designed 
and enfolded in nature. The delightful surroundings 
in the lofty mountains with their flashing brooks and 
sparkling lakes, the balsam-laden breath of the great 
forests, the pure delight of life in the open, and the 
charming little birds chanting their sweet melodies, are 
some of the wondrous beauties of the mountains and 
the attractions of the open land. When we behold the 
grandeur of creation and of nature throughout the 
area of these great mountains, the impressions are 
beyond our ability to fully express and portray. 

The giant and glistening peaks, with their con¬ 
crete pillars of the various sizes and folds of their 
robes, and the beautifully luxurious gorgeous-colored 
terraces, cataracts, falls, marvelous volcanoes and gla¬ 
ciers that are set beside each other; and remarkable 
formations of the wild canyons, scenes of Alpine 
grandeur; and the great palisades of hanging snow, 
and rivers that have dug, brawling, glacier-fed, 
about the feet of the giant peaks and eruptive 
rocks, form the greater altitudes of the major axis of 
these great chains of mountains representing their 
acute folds. The axis, representing the structure of 
the anticlinals, contours and greater altitudes and acute 
folds is that line which at every point occupies the 
highest part of the anticlinal. The major axis is the 
upward-bending through an anticlinal and the lowest 


Our Natural Resources 


29 


part of the syncline from which the strata dip in the 
anticlinal, in which they advance and level. When the 
syncline is crimped into a number of parallel and 
wrinkled folds it forms the low rounded ridges and 
swells; and the continuity of the outlines and forma¬ 
tions of the contours and structure profiles form these 
famous mountains and ridges. 


CHAPTER V 


GLACIER PERIODS 

When one beholds the tremendous movement of 
a glacier in its passage across the continent it is hard 
to believe that it owes its power to the soft fluffy and 
exquisite perfection of form designed by nature to 
be the symbols of beauty and purity, rather than to 
the sharpest of her edged tools, planing down lofty 
mountains and cutting through almost unpenetrable 
barriers of rock and earth. The rate of movement of 
a glacier is about two feet per day. The glaciers of the 
Alps are about twenty thousand feet in height and 
none is over ten miles in length. Almost every moun¬ 
tain valley of Switzerland has its glaciers, winding like 
ribbons of light between walls of worn and scored rock 
and through the forest-covered debris of ancient moun¬ 
tains. 

Glaciers once covered the northern part of North 
America; in fact, the ice king at different times has 
summoned all his mighty hosts of snow and ice and 
made an attack upon the grassy plains and wooded 
hills of the temperate zones. He has sent great tongues 
of ice from the Hudson Bay; buried Canada under 
mountains of snow and ice; ploughed up with monster 
glaciers all of the northern part of the United States; 
and crept with icy fingers far into the southland; and 
here remain the enormous piles of gravel and the 
smoothly planed Rockies which are silent witnesses of 
the great ice age of North America. Mountains were 
leveled, mighty rivers were turned back in their courses, 
the valleys filled with millions of tons of gravel. Were 
there no such a thing as a glacier today on which we 
might walk, make measurements, and calculations as 
to its rate of advance, then possibly, the work done by 


30 


Our Natural Resources 


31 


ancient glaciers would be mysterious and unintelligible. 

When a glacier begins to advance nothing in its 
immediate pathway is an obstacle to it. Before a 
glacier our enormous skyscrapers of steel and cement 
would be mowed down, would crumble like shale and 
would topple over like surgar cane; our steel plants 
would simply be erased, the wheels of prosperity would 
stop. Energy, knowledge, wealth, the appliances of 
the scientific engineer or the power of the modern cap¬ 
italist would avail not against the advancing wall of 
ice. Glaciers pick up masses of rock weighing scores, 
or even hundreds of tons and carry them far from 
their original site, across rivers and mountains. 

At the present time the earth is 3,000,000 miles 
nearer to the sun in winter than it is in summer. In 
other words, the earth’s orbit is an ellipse, and the 
sun is at one of two central points known as faci. Our 
orbit is now almost a circle but in times past it was 
an elongated ellipse. The long diameter is known as 
the major axis and this axis, owing to a number of 
causes, varies greatly in length. The extreme maxi¬ 
mum of eccentricity was passed at about 850,000 miles 
instead of 3,000,000 as at present. 

Shall we have another glacial epoch ? Is there any 
danger of our country’s being covered with a sheet of 
ice possibly a mile in thickness? It is in the lap of 
periods that any one of many possibilities will bring 
the age of ice. A slight uplifting of northern lands or 
a change in the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, would 
again make it possible. Yes, they are bound to come, 
but not possible in our day or generation. The past 
is a prophecy of the future. 


CHAPTER VI 


TEXT OF GEOLOGICAL REPORT 

The geological report of Western Pennsylvania, on 
the Allegheny formation of coal, was known to the 
early geologists of the state as the lower productive 
measures. It can be distinguished from the overlying 
formation of limestone and the presence of several 
workable coals, the best known and definable being in 
ascending order namely: Mercer, Brookville, Clarion, 
Lower Kittanning, Middle Kittanning, Upper Kittan¬ 
ning, Lower Freeport, Upper Freeport, Pittsburgh, 
Redstone, Sewickley, Waynesburg. This formation 
is of value economically from the fact that it embraces 
the Pittsburgh Coal Beds which are generally of a uni¬ 
form workable thickness and purity wherever found m 
Pennsylvania. 

The distance of the coal measures, in the over- 
lying formation of Western Pennsylvania and in the 
Allegheny formation from the top of the Waynesburg 
Coal to the top of the Mercer Coal; this being the first 
period and ages of coal. The Redstone, Sewickley and 
Waynesburg Coal overlies the Pittsburgh Coal and 
appears in certain districts. The Pittsburgh Coal is 
more uniform in thickness and workable where meas¬ 
urements and logging can be secured. 

The distance in feet from the top of the Pittsburgh 
Coal to the top of the Mercer Coal is as follows: 


Pittsburgh Coal_ 0 

Upper Freeport_620 

Lower Freeport_,_690 

Upper Kittanning_850 

Middle Kittanning_910 

Lower Kittanning_960 

Clarion _1650 

Brookville_1800 

Mercer _2200 


32 











Our Natural Resources 


33 


MAJOR BASIN AND TROPICAL TREES DURING THE 
FIRST PERIODS AND AGES 

In the Major Basin during the first periods of the 
coal age there was 2,200 feet to the top of the Pitts¬ 
burgh Coal, the first ascending measure being closer, 
permeating the center of the earth. The earth being 
a tropical climate during the first periods, the trees 
consisted of the pines, spruces and plants, and were 
of a softer substance than the trees formed at a higher 
elevation. The tropical trees being low down through 
the great basin, were nourished by the mists from the 
lakes and rivers. The same can be said of the basins 
throughout the different states and elsewhere. The 
tropical trees in the great basins were closer than at 
the present day formation, and permeated the center 
of the earth. The soft species being of a soft, oily 
formation, superinduced by heat, the pitchy sap passed 
off, collecting and forming the oil pools. The remain¬ 
ing substance was found petrified within the sands and 
rocks. This, in fact, accounts for the finding of oil 
and gas where the measures of the coal beds do not 
appear. 

MAJOR BASIN AND VALLEY 

The Pittsburgh Coal (river seam) in its purity 
can be found in Western Pennsylvania, in the Pitts¬ 
burgh District, Irwin, Latrobe, and Connellsville basin. 
This is indicated by the overlying formation of lime¬ 
stone, which also indicates the presence of oil and gas 
at these points. In the first periods of the coal ages 
through this major valley or basin, the long extended 
anticlinals, the low rounded ridges and swells and their 
gentle foldings, the leveling and forming of the struc¬ 
ture and forming of the coal at a higher elevation dur¬ 
ing the periods, left the valleys and ridges in their 
present day formation. Some of those long extended 
anticlinals parallel to the Blue Ridge Mountains through 
West Virginia, far in through Pennsylvania where 
they meet the rivers at McKeesport and Pittsburgh 


34 Coal , Oil , Gas awd Electricity 

and are known as the Warfield, Indiana, Brownsville, 
Belle Vernon, Amity, and Washington anticlinals. On 
the Amity anticlinal in the Pittsburgh district the 
Pittsburgh Coal (river seam) rises to an approximate 
elevation of 1,200 feet above sea level, declines south¬ 
east continuing in the same general direction, and 
again rises. It reaches an elevation of 1,200 feet be¬ 
fore crossing what is known as the Murraysville anti¬ 
clinal in the McKeesport district, declining gently 
through this major valley or basin. In the overlying 
formation it reaches far into West Virginia where it 
is brought to light approximately 50 feet above sea 
level, by the acute folds of this region. This is the 
lowest point .of the major valley or basin, and the 
Pittsburgh Coal (river seam) and lower productive 
measures of coal and sands. From this point the rising 
of the coal and sands goes north to the Great Lakes. 

THE FORMING OF THE RIVERS—ALLEGHENY 
FORMATION 

The Monongahela River is winding and plowing 
its way through the major basin from Braxton County, 
West Virginia; the Youghiogheny down the Blue Ridge 
Mountains through the valleys and ridges; and the 
Allegheny from the northeast, joined by the Kiskimine- 
tas and Conemaugh and Loyalhanna from the east. 
All unite to form the Ohio at Pittsburgh. 


CHAPTER VII 


COAL WAS DISCOVERED IN AMERICA IN 1673 

There are strong reasons to believe that the dis¬ 
covery of coal in America was made in Illinois by the 
early French and the remarkable discovery of the first 
coal in America of which there is any account was 
printed in a book of discovery. The coal was found far 
in the interior of Illinois about 250 years ago, by Father 
Hennepin, within the strata and folds of the hills on the 
embankment of the Illinois River. The priest made 
maps and blue-prints, which accompanied the editions 
of his great works and journal published in 1698. Lo¬ 
cation of a coal mine was made near Ottawa, where an 
inferior quality of bituminous coal was found out¬ 
cropping to the surface. In reference to the records 
and maps left by Father Hennepin, many geologists 
and authorities say, “This is the earliest notice on 
record of the existence of coal in America.” 

FORMATION OF COAL AND BY-PRODUCTS 
Nestling between the Blue Ridge Mountains and 
the Fayette anticlinal and known as the Indiana anti¬ 
clinal in the Latrobe and Connellsville region beneath 
these gentle rounded ridges, lies the Pittsburgh Coal 
Measure. The Pittsburgh coal is 800 feet above sea 
level, this being the lowest point. It rises gently and 
ascends northeast and southwest where it is brought 
to light by the acute folds of this region and, as it is 
a superior quality of coal containing the proper ele¬ 
ments and chemical compositions required for the 
producing of coke, is recognized as the finest coking 
coal in the world. 

SUPERIOR QUALITY OF COKING COAL 
This superior quality of coking coal has no doubt 


35 


36 


Coal , Oil, Gas and Electricity 


been produced by the different species of hard and 
soft woods. The oaks, hickory, walnut, etc., and the 
softer species of trees, the maple, sycamore, beech and 
chestnut; these woods contain the necessary chemical 
composition required to produce the superior quality 
of coal. The chestnut has the greatest chemical com¬ 
position of the soft woods, but the combining of all in 
the process of combustion was no doubt essential to 
perfect and properly balance the chemical elements 
which have made the products possible. 



AN OLD SETTLER’S HOME 









Our Natural Resources 


37 


PRODUCTION OF COKE 

When coal is heated out of contact with the air 
or oxygen the residue, after the volatile products are 
expelled is coke. The amount of material driven off, 
and consequently the amount of coke products depends, 
for any coal, on the temperature to which the coal was 
heated and the length of time the heat was allowed 
to act. A high temperature produces a true coke con¬ 
taining very little residual volatile matter, while a 
relatively low temperature produces a coke containing 
a larger amount of volatile matter. This latter coke is 
frequently called carbonized coal, or preferably “semi- 
coke.” From another point of view coke may be re¬ 
garded as the coal analogue of wood charcoal. In this 
discussion the term coke will be considered as referring 
to true or high temperature coke unless otherwise 
noted. 

Coke is used primarily as a fuel. It finds its 
greatest application in metallurgical work, particularly 
in the iron and steel industries. It forms part of the 
charge in practically all blast furnaces and foundry 
cupolas. In some places, particularly in Scotland, some 
blast furnaces use raw coal, generally anthracite, but 
the number of these installations is too small to be 
significant. As a blast furnace and cupola fuel, coke 
must be low in ash, sulphur, and phosphorus, as these 
are decidely injurious to the product of the furnace. 
Coke is used to some extent as a domestic fuel. Its 
chief merit in this case is that its combustion is smoke¬ 
less. It will burn very much like anthracite coal, and 
may be used in heating equipment designed for hard 
coal. In this connection it may be well to mention that 
low temperature coke or semi-coke would be even a 
better domestic fuel for it also is smokeless. It ignites 
more readily than true coke, and holds the fire better. 
Coke is used in gas producers and in water gas manu¬ 
facture. In this instance the coke is burned with an 


38 Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 

amount of air insufficient for complete combustion. 
The products of combustion are carbon monoxide and 
nitrogen. The oxygen of the air first turns to carbon 
dioxide and this in turn is reduced by the hot carbon 
of the coke to carbon monoxide. 

This operation consumes about thirty per cent of 
the total heat energy of the carbon in the coke. When 
the carbon monoxide burns to carbon dioxide the re¬ 
maining seventy per cent of the heat energy is evolved. 
In some operations a little of the heat may be saved 
by using the hot gas as it comes from the producer 
and also by the use of a regenerative or recuperative 
system to heat the air necessary for the combustion 
of the gas. The gas is used as a fuel in heating and 
melting furnaces, and in internal combustion engines. 
When water gas is made from coke, air is blown through 
the producer until the coke bed is at a very high tem¬ 
perature, then steam is sent through the bed until 
the fire has cooled off somewhat, at which time air is 
again blown through to again raise the temperature. 
Steam is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen, and 
the oxygen leaves the producer combined with carbon 
as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. In careful 
operations the CO is high and the C0 2 low. The hydro¬ 
gen passed through unchanged, or it may pick up a 
little carbon from methane (CH), but this is never 
present in any considerable amount. The water gas 
consists primarily of dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydro¬ 
gen, methane and nitrogen, the latter constituting on 
the average about forty per cent of the total gas. When 
the gas is to be used for illuminating purposes it is 
enriched, generally with petroleum or tar oils, to in¬ 
crease its candle power. Coke figured as an article of 
commerce in China over 2,000 years ago. 

It was used during the Middle Ages in Europe for 
domestic purposes and in the arts, but it was not until 
1620 that Sir William St. John obtained a patent for 
a beehive oven. Previous to this time the coal had 


Our Natural Resources 


39 


probably besn coked in piles or mounds in a manner 
corresponding to charcoal burning. In 1700 J. Becher, 
a German chemist, obtained a patent for recovering 
tar from coking coal. In 1781 the Earl of Dundonald 
secured a patent on a process for coking coal in beehive 
ovens, which also covered the production of tar, oils, 
etc. In 1792 Wm. Murdock was successful in produc¬ 
ing gas from coal, and by 1812 was able to light the 
streets of London with coal gas. Murdock is regarded 
as the founder of the coal gas industry. The first 
retort ovens were built in Germany in 1830 and in 
1835 they were built in Pennsylvania. Since that time 
the number of ovens has increased rapidly, with the 
beehive oven being gradually superseded by the by¬ 
product oven. 

In gas manufacture the coke is a by-product while 
in coke manufacture the gas is a by-product. The tar 
and ammonia obtained are to be considered as by¬ 
products of both operations. 

A gas coal is one which gives a large yield of very 
good gas on distillation while the coke may not be of 
so high a quality. Such coals lie between the true 
coking coals which do not yield so rich a gas, and 
those which give large yields of gas but which give 
coke poorly or not at all. Coals of different characteris¬ 
tics are frequently mixed in order to obtain either a 
good gas from a lean coal or, more often, to obtain 
a sound coke from a poor coke-making coal. Illinois 
and eastern coals are mixed in the ratio of eighty and 
twenty per cent; i. e., eighty per cent Illinois coal to 
twenty per cent eastern, such as Pocahontas or Con- 
nellsville, or other strongly coking coals. In some 
plants it has been found sufficient to crush the coal 
finely before charging to secure sound coke. In other 
plants the crushed coal is charged very wet, the pack¬ 
ing due to the water having a tendency toward im¬ 
proving the coking of the coal. In all coking processes 
the impurities in the coal remain in the coke. About 


40 Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 

one-half of the sulphur in the coal is eliminated during 
the coking process but since the coke yield is somewhat 
more than 2-3 of the amount of coal charged into the 
ovens the net amount of sulphur in the coke is very 
nearly the same as that in coal. The elimination of 
sulphur is brought about principally by the breaking 
down of iron pyrite with the loss of half its sulphur. 

All the ash in the coal remains in the coke, so that 
the ash contents of the coke is always higher than 
that of the coal from which it was made. The same 
is true of the phosphorus. When coke is sold on speci¬ 
fications calling for low impurities the coal must be 
carefully prepared for the ovens. This preparation 
includes crushing, screening or washing, and sometimes 
all three, unless the coal is very pure to begin with. 

At one time coke was made in mounds or piles as 
mentioned above. A space was prepared by leveling 
a piece of ground and spreading coal dust on it. Coal 
was then piled to a depth of about 18 inches over this 
dust and flues were arranged over this base. The 
flues were made of refuse coke and lump coal, and 
were filled with billets of wood. The rest of the coal 
was then added to the pile. When the mound was 
ready, fire was applied to the base of the flues. The 
kindling was ignited and the entire pile was soon 
ablaze. The pile required constant attention in regu¬ 
lating the admission of air, so that it would burn but 
would not waste the coke. 

When the volatile matter had all burned off the 
pile was smothered with dust and then a small amount 
of water was introduced into the vertical flues. The 
water was converted into steam, which permeated the 
whole mass, thus finishing the operation and if proper¬ 
ly done, leaving very little moisture in the coke. 

The time for coking a pile of coal by this method 
varies from five to eight days. The coke made in this 
manner was never uniform in quality. The reported 
yield was 59.1 per cent coke, but this did not state if 


Our Natural Resources 


41 


this included only good coke, or coke breeze and ashes. 
This large yield was very probably due to extra pre¬ 
cautions taken in this one burning. A yield of fifty 
per cent would be a good average by this method. 

The next advance over mound coking was the use 
of the so-called beehive oven. The essential features 
of the beehive oven are a circular, vaulted firebrick 
chamber, constructed on a suitable foundation with a 
flat tile floor, an opening at the top through which 
the coal is charged and the products of combustion 
escape, and an arched door at the bottom, about three 
feet high, through which the air for combustion is 
a knitted and the coke watered and drawn. The dimen¬ 
sions vary in different parts of the country but the 
essential features are the same. However, the ovens 
are generally thirteen to fifteen feet in diameter and 
seven and one-half to nine feet high. The oven is 
charged through the circular opening in the top of the 
dome. An amount of coal determined according to 
whether the oven is to run forty-eight or seventy-two 
hours, is charged into the hot oven from a car running 
on a track above the oven. The coal is leveled either 
by hand or with mechanical devices, and the door is 
bricked up to within two or three inches of the top. 
The heat from the previous charge, retained by the 
walls, causes the volatile matter to distill off and final¬ 
ly ignite. The coking proceeds from the top of the 
coke downward and the necessary high temperature 
in the oven is maintained by closing up the door. When 
the evolution of the volatile matter has all been ex¬ 
pelled the process is complete, the door is pulled down 
and the coke is quenched with water and drawn from 
the oven. 

Longitudinal ovens were introduced in 1908 in an 
attempt to offset the scarcity of skilled labor. The 
oven is a long narrow rectangular chamber with a 
sloping roof, constructed of the same materials as the 
beehive oven, having a door at each end for the admis- 


42 Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 

sion of air. It is charged from the top, and the coke 
when finished is pushed out by means of a special 
pusher. These ovens vary in size, according to the 
builders, but have about the same capacity as the bee¬ 
hive ovens; converting a charge of four and one-half 
to five tons of coal in a forty-eight hour run and a 
ton or so more in a seventy-two hour run. The yield 
is variable and cannot be accurately controlled, but 
runs from fifty per cent to sixty per cent of the coal 
charged. No by-products, of course, are recovered. 
In order to increase the yield from beehive ovens and 
to control the coking operation somewhat better, ovens 
were designed whereby the gases coming from the coal 
were burned to heat adjoining ovens. These ovens, 
known as coppee ovens, after being built, were long 
narrow chambers provided with vertical flues in which 
the gases burned. They were thirty feet long and five 
feet high, with an average width of twenty-four inches, 
and were four inches wider at the pusher side. Ar¬ 
ranged in batteries of twenty to thirty and operated 
in pairs, the gas from one oven heated the one next 
to it. The coking time, after a few improvements 
over the first design, was thirty-three to thirty-six 
hours. The yield averaged from sixty-five per cent 
to seventy-five per cent, depending on the coal charged. 
No by-products were recovered from the coppee oven. 

It is stated above that London was first lighted 
by gas about the year 1812. Coal gas retorts are made 
horizontal, inclined, or vertical according to the choice 
of the builder. Coke, tar, and NH are collected as 
by-products from all three. Each type has its particu¬ 
lar advantages. The horizontal retort gives probably 
the best quality of gas, but since the charge is only 
about 400 pounds, it is worked off in about four to 
four and one-half hours. This necessitates frequent 
charging. The yield of tar is not very great, but the 
tar is heavy and is very valuable. The coke is light and 
spongy due to the shallow layer of coal in the retort. 


Our Natural Resources 


43 


The inclined and vertical retorts take larger charges, 
do not require recharging so often and give coke and 
tar of a higher quality. In the case of vertical retorts, 
steam is often drawn through chambers filled with fire 
bricks to absorb the heat from the hot gases. When 
the bricks are hot, the current is directed to a second 
chamber and the air for combustion is pre-heated by 
drawing it through the first chamber. When the first 
chamber has cooled down, the air is diverted and the 
gases turned in again. These reversals occur about 
every thirty minutes without either recuperative or 
regenerative systems to pre-heat the air for combustion 
and thus effect a very considerable conservation of 
heat. No high temperature operations could be eco¬ 
nomically carried on. By-product ovens are of two 
general types. Those with horizontal flues are mod¬ 
eled after the original Simon Carves ovens, of which 
the Semet-Solvey and Rothberg are notable examples; 
those with vertical flues are modeled after the original 
Ccppee oven. The Koppers, Otto Hoffman, New Cop- 
pee, Muller, Von Bauer and many others are examples 
of this type. Considering all the ovens together, the 
oven chamber proper is about the same size in all, 
namely, thirty to forty-five feet long, seventeen to 
twenty inches wide, and about six feet high. The 
charge is normally about six tons of coal and the cok¬ 
ing time is seventeen to twenty hours, depending on 
the practice at the different plants. All these ovens 
may be equipped with either recuperators or regenera¬ 
tors to pre-heat the gas. Regenerators are almost al¬ 
ways used. They heat the air to about 1,800 degrees 
Fahrenheit. 

The principal difference between any two of the 
ovens is in the heating arrangements. The Semet- 
Solvey is heated from the ends through the horizontal 
flues, the gas and pre-heated air being blown in at 
one of the flues. In about thirty minutes, the gas and 
air are reversed and blown in from the other end. 


44 Coal , Oil, Gas and Electricity 

With vertical flue ovens there is still greater variation 
in the heating arrangements. In the Koppers type 
the burning gas passes up through all the flues and 
then down. In the Otto Hoffman oven the reversal 
takes place in two alternate sections of flues, each 
equal to one-fourth of the length of the ovens. In the 
Coppee style the reversal occurs in alternating sec¬ 
tions each equal to one-tenth of the length of the oven. 
In the Muller oven the flues are operated in pairs, the 
burning gas going up one flue and down the next. The 
heat lost in the upward passage is replaced by an 
auxiliary in the upper part of the flue. In the Collin 
oven there are twenty-eight main flues and twenty- 
seven auxiliary flues. During the first half hour the 
gas and air meet in the bottom of the main flues and 
pass up and down and over through the secondary 
flues. During the next half hour the gas and air meet 
in the top of the main flues and pass down and then up 
and out through the secondary flues. In the Von Bauer 
oven no reversal takes place. The gas is led through 
mains to different parts of the flues and air comes 
from the bottom. In the Koppers oven the reversal 
takes place in over one-half of the oven at a time. The 
front half is heated, the hot gases passing off through 
the rear half. Upon reversal the rear half is heated, 
while the spent gases pass off through the front half. 
In any of these ovens the temperature ranges up to 
about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven proper and 
500 degrees to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit in the flues. 

With all by-product ovens certain accessory appa¬ 
ratus is used. This consists of levelers to level off the 
coal in the oven and pushers to discharge the coke and 
quenchers. When hot coke is quenched in the air, 
which is the general practice in by-product plants, it 
turns dark in color. In a beehive oven the coke is 
quenched inside the oven, and as the steam formed 
quickly displaces the air, the coke remains a silvery 
color. For a long time this was the chief argument 


Our Natural Re sour css 


45 


against the use of by-product coke and, for that mat¬ 
ter, is still heard. Foundry and blast furnace opera¬ 
tors, who had been accustomed to the use of beehive 
coke, thought the darker by-product coke could not be as 
good. When they were finally persuaded to try it, 
they were quickly convinced of its merits, and now it 
is considered by practically every user to be equal to 
the best product of the beehive ovens. To eliminate 
this argument, quenchers, such as the Moore quencher, 
were designed. The Moore quencher has a chamber 
of somewhat the same shape as a by-product oven, 
but is slightly larger. The coke is pushed from the 
oven into the quencher and the water then is added. 

In this way the coke is cooled out of contact with the 
air and has the silver color desired by some users. In 
considering the structure of coke, it must be remem¬ 
bered that in the beehive oven the coking proceeds 
from the top downward through the mass of coal. 
This was the result of giving the beehive coke a pillar¬ 
like structure. In a by-product oven the coking pro¬ 
ceeds from the walls inward, making the coke blocky 
and resulting in a line of clearage down the middle of 
the mass in the oven. 

In referring to the comparative yields, only very 
general figures can be given. No two plants are ex¬ 
actly alike; they do not run the ovens the same length 
of time or at the same temperature. They do not 
have the same amount of heated surfaces over which 
the tar and gases must pass; and the scrubbing and 
extraction apparatus varies. Using the same coal in 
two plants may secure the same average yield of 
coke, but the yields and quality of gas, tar, and am¬ 
monia can rarely be duplicated. General average yields 
are in proportion to the coal charged. 

(In an article published by a prominent geologist, 
it was said, “If coal was not petroleum and was of a 
liquid form as peat and turf, but was wood; could coke 
not be derived from wood? And, if not, why do not 


46 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


some of the geologists say so?”) 

Peat and turf, being dried, decaying vegetable 
matter, are composed chiefly of leaves found in bogs 
and lowlands, and do not contain the proper elements 
to make coke. 

Take thirty species of trees as follows: Chestnut, 
oak, walnut, sycamore, hickory, maple, etc., reduced to 
a charring action and mixed together under pressure; 
turn the vegetable life into a form of carbon and sub¬ 
ject to the heat units. This combination will produce 
coke. Our tropical fruits by the same process of dis¬ 
tillation contain many of the by-products found in coal. 


CHAPTER VIII 


PITTSBURGH, IRWIN, LATROBE AND CONNELLSVILLE 
BASIN 

The Pittsburgh Coal in the Irwin district is at a 
higher elevation than the coal in the Latrobe-Connells- 
ville basin and is composed of the hardest species of 
wood of the trees of a higher elevation and not com¬ 
posed of many soft woods, such as the sycamore, chest¬ 
nut, etc., found at a lower elevation. In the Irwin 
and Pittsburgh districts the coal is of a more solid 
formation and the substance contains more gas and 
heating units for a steaming coal. It is recognized 
as the finest quality of Pittsburgh Coal for steaming 
purposes found in Western Pennsylvania. The same 
can be said of the coal in the Pittsburgh and McKees¬ 
port districts where the coal is at an elevation of ap¬ 
proximately 1,200 feet above the sea level. In these 
districts at the highest elevation the coal is superior 
in quality to that of a lower elevation. 

LOWER PRODUCTIVE MEASURES 

In relation to the lower productive measures of 
coal lying along the Blue Ridge Mountains in the 
Latrobe and Connellsville basin where the Upper and 
Lower Freeport appear, several workable mines are 
being operated, as to both measures. Descending 
through this basin under the Pittsburgh coal, we find 
the Upper Freeport at a depth of 620 feet and at a 
depth of 680 feet we find the Lower Freeport. The 
Kittanning and lower productive measures are at a 
greater depth. The Upper Freeport is found here at 
its lowest point, being 180 feet above sea level. The 
Lower Freeport here is 120 feet above sea level, and 
rises to a high elevation before crossing the Fayette 
anticlinal known as the Indiana. There they again 


47 


48 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


appear and are brought to light by the acute folds of 
this region, radiating from the major axis of the 
anticlinal. Several workable mines are being operated 
as to both measures. 

During the periods of the formation of the Pitts¬ 
burgh coal and overlying measures, forming the Red¬ 
stone, Sewickley, and Waynesburg coal, the Pittsburgh 
and Redstone joined together during the same period 
of convulsions and possibly formed the Pittsburgh and 
overlying measures during the same period. The most 
plausible theory to account for the coal being formed 
joined together in the overlying formation is that 
these conditions may be made possible by the emigrat¬ 
ing of the charred substance of vegetable life of the 
higher altitude carried down and fed upon the basins 
and valleys in the overlying formations. The most 
possible theory of this phenomenon in nature, as to 
the transmutation and emigrating of the coal from the 
greater altitude and the forming of the various veins 
and measures in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, 
and the coal being found joined together is that the 
coal may have been formed during two periods, and 
the possible age of our great continent during the 
periods of creation may be of shorter duration than 
many thousands of year. In conjunction with the miner¬ 
al deposits the transmutation of the sand and rock were 
carried down and fed upon the major basins and valleys 
during the transmutation of the coal. Relative to each 
period, in the McKeesport district on the high altitudes 
of this region of the Youghiogheny River, the Pitts¬ 
burgh coal and Redstone are formed together. These 
conditions appear in Washington County and in many 
sections throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia, 
usually where the structure and formation has been 
raised at a greater altitude of the formative periods. In 
the overlying formation, again rising and being 
brought to light throughout the basins and valleys by 
the acute folds of these regions, these same conditions 


Our Natural Resources 


49 


appear, and the same can be said of the formative 
periods of the Freeport measures of coal in tne over- 
lying formations, the descending and the pitch of the 
coal being formed at a greater depth throughout the 
major basins, where it is again brought to light by 
the acute folds of the regions. 

These conditions appear in the Conemaugh forma¬ 
tions and northeastern sections of Pennsylvania, form¬ 
ing the anthracite coal and measures carrying a greater 
thickness. The uniting and compounding of the vari¬ 
ous charred substances of vegetable life at a great alti¬ 
tude and less area forms the coal beds in more irregular 
veins than throughout the basins and valleys with 
their gentle foldings. 

In the overlying formations of the Allegheny and 
Blue Ridge Mountains, the structure contours and 
strata of the rock are silent witnesses of the great con¬ 
vulsions of the earth which took place during the 
periods of the coal ages. The structure has been 
changed at the same time in many places from a hori¬ 
zontal to a vertical elevation, changing many of the 
high altitudes of the structure and elevations forming 
the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains. 

In the Latrobe-Connellsville basin lying along the 
Blue Ridge Mountains where the upper and lower Free¬ 
port measures appear and are formed together, the 
separating and descending through the basin of the coal 
northwest reaches the Allegheny River at a point near 
Harwick, where they again appear and are brought to 
light by the acute folds of this region. The same con¬ 
ditions appear in West Virginia, near Bilington, Bar¬ 
ber County, and in many other sections throughout the 
state, where the Freeports and other overlying meas¬ 
ures have formed the Pocohontas coal. Similar forma¬ 
tions are found in the region bordering on the Elk 
River where the coal seams are apparently joined to¬ 
gether. 

Relative to the lower productive measures in Ohio, 


50 Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 

including Freeports and Kittanning measures, we find 
the structure in the overlying formation more uniform 
throughout the basins and valleys of the state, the coal 
beds being formed in the overlying formation, very 
close to the surface in many sections throughout the 
state; so that much of the mining can be done by 
stripping or removing a small portion of the surface, 
where the various thicknesses of the coal measures 
are disclosed. These measures of coal are found to be 
produced by the vegetable life. Trees, largely maple, 
beach, birch, and various species of the oak, under¬ 
going a process of the charring action of the heat units 
during the convulsions taking place forming these 
measures, and the water lying throughout the basins 
and valleys overlying these measures, the coal under¬ 
went a process of petrification by the action of the salt 
water combined with the chemical element of the earth, 
leaving the coal in a solid formation. Usually a superior 
quality of coal is formed in the measures underlying an 
abundant growth of timber where the forests are dense 
and the undergrowth luxuriant. In many districts in 
the basins and valleys throughout the states the quality 
of the product is the highest and where the surface 
growth is small, immature and scrubby, the coal under¬ 
neath is invariably of an inferior quality and does not 
contain as many by-products. 

LOWER PRODUCTIVE MEASURES IN WESTERN PENN¬ 
SYLVANIA, OHIO, AND WEST VIRGINIA 
As to the lower productive measures of coal in 
Western Pennsylvania I can say that the Freeports 
have been quite extensh ely operated. The Kittanning 
measures are being operated in certain districts where 
the measures of the Pittsburgh coal do not appear. 
These measures underline the Pittsburgh coal which 
is at a greater depth in Barbor County, West Virginia. 
The Kittanning measures are being operated in Brax¬ 
ton and Kanawha Counties. The Upper and Lower 
Freeports have been operated quite extensively in this 


Our Natural Resources 


51 


reckon of the state and the same can be said for the 
sta'e of Ohio. In regard to the Upper and Lower Free- 
ports and Kittanning coal in Columbiana County, I 
might say that several workable mines are being oper¬ 
ated in these measures at Lisbon. The coal lying in 
the basin underwent a process of petrifaction caused 
by the chemical action of the salt water from the 
unsettled oceans during the convulsions of Vature 
through the periods. This coal is closer to the surface, 
and is harder than the coal formed at a higher eleva¬ 
tion throughout the country. 

The Central Mining Company located at Lisbon, 
Ohio, is now operating in this field and is producing 
a fine grade of coal, having recently acquired a large 
acreage of these productive measures. 

PREVENTION OF CATASTROPHE 

The mining of the lower productive measures of 
ccal, lying in the great basins has always been a source 
of imminent danger to the workmen, and the terrible 
catastrophes of recent years should be sufficient warn¬ 
ing to prompt immediate action looking to the safe¬ 
guarding of human life among the intrepid men, who 
have the courage to perform this very essential work 
many miles underneath the earth's surface. The ven¬ 
tilating of the miles of area required for ingress and 
egress to these mines should be carefully studied by 
expert engineers in conference with the best trained 
mining experts, and a plan devised whereby this danger 
might be reduced to a minimum. We would suggest 
that in every field where it is necessary to drive entries 
into a solid coal bed, in addition to the regular air 
shafts and manholes, a series of holes reaching to the 
depths of the mines be bored, of a sufficient diameter 
to permit the egress of the men in case of emergency. 

These holes should be drilled at the most strategic 
points. Four twenty-inch bore holes should be drilled 
to the mile, covering and parallel to the entire courses 


52 Coal , Oil, Gas and Electricity 

of the entries. They should be cased with twenty-inch 
concrete tiling with iron hand holds, bolted through 
the pipes along the workings as a means of escape 
for the men in case of combustions and explosions. 
Such a safeguard would make it practically impossible 
for the black damp and other dangerous substances to 
accumulate in such quantities as to endanger life by 
explosion or suffocation. When a safety plan of this 
character is worked out and perfected, the danger will 
largely be eliminated. Confidence will be established 
in the minds of the workmen and larger production 
will be sure to follow. The larger expenses of providing 
for widows and orphans will be saved and more happi¬ 
ness in miners’ homes and operators’ mansions will 
certainly be enjoyed. When the Government of the 
United States takes the proper steps to ventilate the 
coal mines, by holes being drilled the proper distance 
apart to eliminate these poisonous gases and safeguard 
the lives of the miners, they will have not only saved 
the lives of men, but thousands of dollars which is 
spent through the Bureau of Mines. 

The formation, strata, and logging of the Alle¬ 
gheny formation and depth of the measurements from 
the top of the Pittsburgh Coal and Sands, to the first 
periods and ages. 

LOGGING 

Of special interest to coal, oil and gas prospectors 
is this scientific table of logging showing the depth and 
formation of the Allegheny formations and strata, 
from the Pittsburgh coal to the Niagara sands. It in¬ 
cludes very essential information and a standard table 
of the measurements in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West 
Virginia, of the actual formations of the strata, and 
priceless fuel deposits that man has found enfolded in 
the bosom of the earth. From this valuable table the 
driller derives knowledge of all the geological forma¬ 
tions down to the first formative periods of the earth’s 
crust, to a depth of 5,000 feet. 


RED STONE, SEWICKLEY AND WAYNESBURG COAL 
CORAL SAND 


Datum. Pittsburgh Surface 

Sands 

Coal 

100 

200 

Pittsburgh Coal Top 
Homewood Lime 



300 

400 

500 

Ames Limestone 

300 


600 

Upper Freeport 

Lower Freeport 


620 

690 

700 

800 

Upper Kittanning 


850 

900 

1000 

1100 

Middle Kittanning 

Lower Kittanning 

Salt Sand 

970 

910 

950 

1200 

1300 

1400 

Big Lime 

Big Injun 

1200 

1250 


1500 

Squaw Sand 

1550 


1600 

1700 

Clarion Coal 


1650 

1800 

Brookville Coal 
Murraysville Sand 

1830 

1800 

1900 

2000 

Hundred-foot Sand 

1960 


2100 

Thirty-foot Sand 

2110 


2200 

Mercer Coal 

Gordon Stray Sand 

Gordon Sand 

1st Periods and Ages 2200 
2220 

2260 

2300 

Fourth Sand 

Fifth Sand 

2310 

2360 


2400 

Byard Sand 

2440 


2500 

2600 

Elizabeth 

2550 


2700 

2800 

First Warren 

2790 


2900 

3000 

3100 

Second Warren 

2910 


3200 

Speechley Stray Sand 

3225 Lower Productive 

Meas. 

3300 

Speechley Sand 

3270 Sand 


3400 

3500 

3600 

3700 

3800 

Tiona or Balltown Sand 
Sheffield Sand 

3400 


3900 

Bradford Stray Sand 
Bradford Sand 

3910 

3950 


4000 

Kane Sand 

4020 


4100 

4200 

Brennan Sand 

4160 


4300 

4400 

Burghan 

4305 


4500 

4600 

4700 

Second Burghan 

4500 


4800 

Erie Sand 

4800 


4900 

First Ages 

4900 


5000 

Niagara 

5000 



CHAPTER IX 


FORMATION OF OIL AND GAS 

In conjunction with the formation of coal, oil and 
gas were formed under similar circumstances. The 
trees that grew during the periods to form oil were 
of a different specie of wood, having a pitchy, resinous 
composition and of a soft, oily formation, such as 
pines, spruce and plants. Superinduced by heat and 
pressure the pitchy sap distilled into oil and passed 
off from a heavy sap to a liquid; thus forming the oil 
pools. At the time of the extinguishing and drown¬ 
ing out of the fires of the forests, gases collected from 
the burning and smoldering substance of the forests, 
uniting with gases generating and rising off the oil 
and salt water. These were under the generative influ¬ 
ence of the heat pressure and passed into the different 
sands found in the anticlinals. 

Expansion took place and where there were long 
extended fissures or pockets, expansion was easily ac¬ 
complished; but not where great bodies of this newly 
formed oil and gas were confined in compartively 
small pools and pockets. In comparison to the amount 
of the oil and gas this expansion was difficult and was 
accomplished through compression. When a well is 
drilled into a pocket, the sands of which are close 
grained and not porous, only a small proportion of gas 
is found in comparison with the size of the pocket, 
and a small producing well is the result. When, on 
the other hand, a pocket containing a highly compressed 
body of gas or oil is tapped, and the sand porous and 
open grained, the so-called “gusher” is the result. 

Where gas and oil are contained in the same pock¬ 
et, and both are equally compressed, it is possible to 
produce great volumes of gas without a trace of oil. 


54 


Our Natural Resources 


55 


The gas, being more volatile, passes off first. If a sulfi- 
cient pressure remains after the passing of gas, the 
oil may flow afterwards, although the emptying out 
of the gas may entirely deplete the pressure. It is the 
writer’s firm belief that if a search were made through 
abandoned gas wells, great quantities of oil might be 
found lacking the necessary force needed to raise itself 
to the surface. For proof of this theory, a similar 
parallel exists, well known in coal mining, where vol¬ 
umes of air, compressed by the pressure of millions 
of tons of water are forced into small pockets. If the 
pockets containing this air were tapped it would rush 
out under great pressure. If, on the other hand, the 
water were pumped out, the pressure would return to 
normal. 



LARGE PRODUCER OF CRUDE OIL ON THE RANGER 
FIELD, TEXAS. 

Well flowing 12,000 to 15,000 barrels per day is here shown. 
Note the “gusher” throwing sand and dust into the air. 




56 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 

PRODUCTS OF PETROLEUM 

Kerosene is only one of the products of petroleum. 
This last word means rock oil, and was once thought to 
be a mineral in its origin. Now we know that it is close¬ 
ly connected with coal and is usually found in its 
neighborhood. 

Petroleum has been known for hundreds of years, 
but it is only recently that kerosene came into use. 

Your grandfather can no doubt remember when 
it first was offered for sale. The early explorers of 
what is now the United States knew of petroleum 
oozing out of the ground or floating on the surface of 
the water in several parts of the United States. 

They found that the Indians rubbed their bodies 
with it, and said that it made them active and quick, 
it out of them. Sometimes they skimmed it off the 
So when this country became settled the whites also 
began to use the oil. Sometimes they laid blankets 
on the ground where the oil appeared and then wrung 
small. It was then sold by peddlers at a high price, 
surface of the water. The quantities they gained were 
as Seneca Oil, Indian Oil, or some such name. It was 
rubbed on the body as a cure for rheumatism, or taken 
as medicine. Few families would use more than a pint 
in a year. The men boring wells to get salt water in 
Western Virginia in 1806, found much petroleum along 
with the brine. This caused a great deal of trouble 
here and at other places, but no one seems to have 
thought of using it, except as a liniment or as a medi¬ 
cine, for many years. Finally in 1848 Samuel M. Kier 
had some of the thick substance distilled and secured 
an oil which would burn in a lamp, though it had a 
horrible odor. It was called carbon oil and sold for a 
dollar and a half a gallon. 

People began to sink wells to get the petroleum, 
but the natural gas which sometimes appeared with 
the oil caught fire and caused an explosion. The oil 
was then sometimes used to make machinery run 


Our Natural Resources 


57 


more smoothly, but still the business did not grow 
rapidly. In 1846 D. Abraham Gesner obtained an oil 
from coal which he afterwards called kerosene, and a 
company was organized to manufacture it. 

The company was successful and other oil-works 
were established. The demand grew and Mr. Silliman, 
of Yale College, was employed to find out whether 
there was any likeness between coal-oil and petroleum. 
He conducted his experiments on Oil Creek, in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and reported that petroleum furnished excellent 
oil for burning. Samuel N. Kier had sold some oil for 
burning in 1848 and two years later James Young got 
some oil from shale which would burn. People began 
to want more of this oil, and a company was organized 
to take oil from a spring in 1854, and in 1856 it was 
determined to try the experiment of boring a well 
deep into the earth. The company hired Edwin L. 
Drake to superintend the work. This man had been 
a railway conductor, who had resigned because of ill- 
health. A new company was organized, and finally, 
in 1858, Colonel Drake, as he was called, arrived in 
Titusville, Pennsylvania, and tried boring the well. 
Tools could not be had, and not until May, 1859, did 
work really commence. 

A tube was driven down to the rock and the work¬ 
men began to drill, accomplishing about three feet a 
day. Colonel Drake was determined to go on and bor¬ 
rowed the money necessary to keep the drillers at 
work. On Saturday, August 28th, l|^9, the drill seemed 
to move easily just before the workmen stopped for 
the day. One of them visited the well and found that 
it was full of oil. A pump was attached and was found 
to yield twenty barrels a day. The whole region went 
wild. Every foot of land along the creek was bought 
or leased by men who intended to drill for oil. Wells 
were sunk in every direction. The town grew in a few 
months from a population of a few hundred to fifteen 
thousand. Many men grew rich almost at once. The 


58 Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 

news spread and men in other sections where oily 
springs had been found also sunk wells. The Drake 
well did not last many years. Gradually the yield grew 
less and less, and finally gave out altogether. Colonel 
Drake had thought that it would be permanent and 
did not try to buy or lease other land. Finally, he left 
the oil regions with $16,000.00, which he afterwards 
lost, and for a time was very poor. When the men who 
had gained millions in the oil business heard of his 
poverty, they raised some money for him and the Leg¬ 
islature of Pennsylvania voted him a pension of $1,500 
a year as long as he or his wife should live. In other 
sections a different kind of oil was found. This was 
thick like molasses, and was used only to make machin¬ 
ery run more smoothly, and today the wells in the 
Franklin district send their oil over the whole world. 

A third kind of oil, which could be used both for 
lamps and machinery, was soon discovered. Some of the 
wells spouted oil. In all hundreds of wells were sunk 
in the district, and oil was also found in West Vir¬ 
ginia and Kentucky. Soon refineries were established 
to separate the oil into its different parts. In later years 
oil was found in many states. New York, Indiana, 
Illinois, Ohio, Kansas, California, Oklahoma and Texas 
produced oil in large quantities. In the days when 
wells were drilled for salt water, it was found that by 
exploding powder in the bottom of the well, sometimes 
more water could be secured. The same experiment 
was tried with the oil wells and was often successful. 
At first powder was used, but it was soon found that 
nitro-glycerine was better. This substance is a mix¬ 
ture of nitric and sulphuric acids, with glycerine, and 
is very powerful. A few drops will wreck a house if it 
is struck sharply. It does not always explode from 
fire. A little powder or dynamite and a small iron 
weight is attached and when dropped the explosion 
shatters the rocks in the bottom and cleans out the 
paraffine which has clogged the well. Sometimes wells 


Our Natural Resources 


59 


which have furnished only a few barrels a day, yield 
hundreds after an explosion of this kind takes place. 

When a well is drilled to the productive sands and 
a light showing is made and it is necessary to increase 
the production by shooting with nitro-glycerine, the 
well should be primed by three to five quarts, especially 
when the sand is close grained and not porous. This 
being the case a larger volume of combustion is made, 
and then thirty to forty quarts when used brings bet¬ 
ter results. When one hundred twenty-five to one hun¬ 
dred fifty ouarts are used it grinds the rock and hinders 
the expansion of combustion. Many wells have been 
ruined by too large a shot of nitro-glycerine. 



OIL SHALE IN UTAH 




60 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


DISCOVERY OF PETROLEUM 

Petroleum was first discovered in Alsatia in 1735. 
A few years later a small refining plant was construct¬ 
ed, and the wells have been worked for a period of 
almost 180 years. They are among the oldest petroleum 
wells in the world. These oil deposits are the only ones 
in the world worked by shafts. As early as 1836 the 
suggestion was made by J. Prietwich, Jr., that geology 
should be applied to the location of petroleum, and in 
1861, L. G. Andrews of Marietta, Ohio, published an 
article entitled: “Rock Oil, Geological Relations and 
Distribution.” He followed this later by a study which 
he published under the title, “Petroleum in its Geo¬ 
logical Relations.” The first oil company prospectus 
which included a geological report, was published in 
1866 by J. S. Newbury, of Cincinnati, and during the 
year 1867 a number of geologists suggested theories in 
connection with locating petroleum. 

It was not until Dr. White won the victory for 
Geology in 1889 that the oil men realized the importance 
of the theory and it began to be adopted by the indus¬ 
try in a practical way. Dr. White wrote the following 
letter to a friend in which he made reference to the 
fight he made for the general adoption of the structural 
theory for the occurrence of oil and gas: 

“There are only a few kinds of true surface indi¬ 
cations of petroleum and most of them are easily recog¬ 
nized. In regions where oil has not been proved to 
exist, either oil, gas or some bituminous substance, or 
the formation of the sand, rock and shale are the only 
reliable indications of its presence. Oil may seep from 
a porous bed or ooze from joints in the rocks, or it 
may issue with matter at some spring or may form a 
film on pools, swamps, meadows, or in water wells. At 
most such seepages the oil escapes in but small quan¬ 
tities, yet the rainbow-hued film it spreads on water 
and its odor are almost certain to attract attention. 
In some places oil fills the pores or a part of the pores 


Our Natural Resources 


61 


of a bed of rock that appears at the surface, but it 
does not flow. It may appear as tarry patches on the 
face of the rock or it may emit an odor, nor do they 
show any indications of oil, although when the rock is 
broken in a fresh surface it may fairly reek with 
petroleum. Some such rocks give no odor of oil even 
when freshly broken, but when they are subjected to 
simple chemical tests they yield traces of oil, bitumen 
or paraffine.” 

In the California oil districts, beds of burned or 
clinkered shale are almost as significant of the presence 
of petroleum as oil-saturated beds. At some places 
the shale was saturated with oil seeping from under¬ 
neath beds and was then in some way ignited and baked 
into a brick-red or to a bright cherry-red mass ranging 
in hardness from that of soft building brick to that of 
almost glassy slag. The California oil region is the 
only known place in the United States where such 
burned shales indicate the probable occurrence of oil, 
although shales have been similarly baked in other 
regions by burning coal beds that lie near the surface. 

Escaping gas may indicate oil, but the gas is usu¬ 
ally almost unnoticeable except where it rises through 
water in bubbles to the surface. As some kinds of 
gas are not associated with oil, escaping gas should be 
sampled and analyzed. If the gas escapes in large 
quantities it may be tested with a match. Practically 
all gases that are commonly associated with oil will 
burn. 

THE LOCATING OF OIL AND GAS FIELDS IS A SCIENCE, 
AND NOT GUESS WORK 

The odor of the gas is also an indication of its 
character. One of the commonest gases that does not 
indicate the presence of petroleum is hydrogen sul¬ 
phide, which smells very unpleasant. In some places 
large quantities of oil have escaped to the surface and 
formed deposits of asphalt, or other bituminous sub- 


62 Coal , Oil , Gas awd Electricity 

stances. Such deposits indicate that oil once existed 
in the region, and that the region is worthy of careful 
study, but they are not a certain indication of the 
presence of petroleum which may have escaped to the 
surface, or it may have been altered to some bituminous 
substance. Iron, from which oil can not be extracted, 
and gypsum, rock salt and sulphur, are associated with 
oil. On the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana gypsum 
or rock salt on the surface or in water wells may indi¬ 
cate the presence of oil, as the oil fields of that region 
are commonly associated with “salt domes” that con¬ 
tain great masses of salt and gypsum. These minerals, 
however, occur also in abundance, in regions where no 
oil has been found and where it can not possibly exist. 
Many things are frequently referred to as indications 
of oil which have no connection whatever with it. 

Probably the most common of these is the rainbow 
colored film produced on water by iron oxide or man¬ 
ganese oxide, or by decaying animal or vegetable mat¬ 
ter. This film can easily be distinguished from the 
film produced by oil, for it has no smell of petroleum 
and it is brittle, whereas an oil film is tough. An oil 
film when stirred will become streaked with colored 
bands that double and twist about, but do not break 
apart, and any openings that are made in it have 
smooth edges which are likely to draw together. Rain¬ 
bow films that do not indicate oil will break into sep¬ 
arate patches when stirred, and the patches are not 
likely to join corners, and many of them are divided 
by narrow cracks that show no tendency to close. It 
is often said that a country looks like oil, that is, the 
surface gives the speaker the impression that it must 
be underlaid by oil. This remark means only that the 
country looks like some other oil-producing region 
which the speaker has visited. The surface appearance 
of a region, however, means absolutely nothing as indi¬ 
cating the presence of oil, for oil may occur under a 
surface of any kind, from the orange groves of Cali- 


Our Natural Resourc3s 


63 


fornia to the alkali plains of Wyoming; from the ice 
circled hills of Alaska to the sun-blistered table lands 
of Utah. And similarly, in many regions where the 
surface is of exactly the same type as that in certain 
oil fields there is not a drop of oil. Some men declare 
that a guide to oil may be found in the vegetation, the 
trees, bushes, grasses and flowers. But the oil is 
found as abundantly in the treeless plains of Kansas 
or the Gulf Coast as in the pine-covered ridges of Penn¬ 
sylvania and West Virginia or the hickory-covered hills 
of Oklahoma. 

Even in a region that is known to be oil bearing 
and in areas having the most promising geological con¬ 
ditions a positive statement that oil in paying quanti¬ 
ties is sure to be found in certain areas is not justifiable, 
although in some such areas the chances are ten to one 
that it will be found. In spite of all these facts some 
men who call themselves “diviners/’ “oil finders,” “oil 
witches” and other names suggestive of unusual pow¬ 
ers, pretend to be able with or without the assistance 
of instruments, to detect unfailingly the presence of oil 
in paying quantities. Nearly all the methods employed 
by these men are based upon superstition or upon 
some methods of the old-time alchemists, who claimed 
the power to change lead, iron, and other metals to 
gold. Some of these “oil witches” simply use a forked 
stick, like the peach tree twig or the hazel wapd of 
the “water witches.” Others have elaborate instru¬ 
ments, fitted with magnets and coils, supposed to work 
through “magnetism,” or provided with parts made of 
platinum, gold, silver, copper, lead, iron or some other 
metal, supposed to work through “affinity of metals.” 

These men are usually ready to prove the correct¬ 
ness of their guesses with somebody else’s money, but 
there is hardly a record of an “oil witch” raising his own 
money on his certain knowledge, and of the thousands 
of devices tested not one has proved to be of the slight¬ 
est value as a means of finding oil. Now and then, of 


64 


Coaly Oil, Gas and Electricity 


course, oil is struck at a place chosen by the use of 
one of these devices, for in a region where oil may 
exist occasional success in finding it by any means is 
inevitable. A great many of the best oil fields in the 
United States were found by blind, random drilling;, 
with no attempted guidance either scientific or super¬ 
natural. 

Many popular beliefs about the occurrence of oil 
deserve particular mention. It is sometimes said that 
oil occurs below the surface of the ground in some 
regions, just as water does in others. This would mean 
that a well in an oil region is as likely to strike petro¬ 
leum as a well in a water-bearing region is likely to 
strike water, that the oil is distributed in an almost 
continuous sheet beneath extensive parts of the country. 

This is not true. Another statement frequently 
heard is that the oil forms an underground stream and 
that a lucky location for a well must lie over that 
stream. Expensive and fruitless drilling has repeatedly 
shown that such streams of oil do not exist. A belief 
that is strongly held in some parts of the country is 
that oil pools are connected, that some channel con¬ 
nects the pools in an oil region. This belief is absolute¬ 
ly disproved by the ranks of barren wells that encircle 
practically every producing oil pool in the world. An¬ 
other wrong idea is that petroleum occurs in under¬ 
ground ponds or lakes. In fact, prospectuses of some 
oil companies refer to lakes and rivers of oil, giving 
the idea of great caverns filled with oil. Not a single 
such cavern has been found in any oil field in the United 
States. Oil is really contained in the tiny openings 
between grains of sand, in the pores and crevices of 
a crystalline, or as in the largest wells, in the compara¬ 
tively small openings of a porous rock. 

Petroleum always occurs as a liquid. Its most vol¬ 
atile parts may be taken into the air by evaporation, 
or into dry clays by absorption, but the solid or semi¬ 
solid substance that remains is not called petroleum, 


Our Natural Resources 


65 


but is known as asphalt, albertite, grahamite, or by 
the more general term bitumen. Although all petro¬ 
leums are liquid, they differ in their qualities; in fact, 
two petroleums from different levels in the same well 
are seldom exactly alike, either in appearance or in 
value. They may differ notably in color. By reflected 
light, as seen in a pail or container, oil is commonly 
green; but it may be black, brown, or yellow. Most of 
the petroleum from California, from the Gulf Coast of 
Texas and Louisiana, and from Mexico is black or dark 
brown. Most of the oils from Wyoming, Kansas and 
Oklahoma are green. Most of those from the Appala¬ 
chian field are green or yellow. All the more produc¬ 
tive oil districts of the United States, however, yield 
both dark and light oils. 

The color of petroleum as viewed by transmitted 
light, that is, as seen in looking through a clear glass 
container full of oil, may differ as much as it does 
when viewed by reflected light. It is most commonly 
some shade of brown, but it may be yellow or green or 
rather exceptionally it may be coal-black. The color 
of oil is a rough indication of its value. Oils of the 
lightest color are generally the most desired. The 
typical Pennsylvania oils, which have a higher market 
value than all others, are amber, light brown, or light 
green. Dark oils are rarely seen in the Pennsylvania 
district, and such as are obtained there, have a com¬ 
paratively low value. 

The viscosity of oil is another characteristic that 
differs widely in different fields. The viscosity is meas¬ 
ured by the rate at which the oil will flow although it 
might be determined by its stickiness. Some petrole¬ 
ums flow as freely as water, others are so thick that 
they flow almost like molasses and hang in slimy, 
icicle-like points, to a stick or other object that may 
be thrust into them and then withdrawn. 

A third differing characteristic of oil is its weight. 
It is commonly believed that oil will float, which means 


68 Coal , Oil, Gas and Electricity 

that it is lighter than water. This is not absolutely 
true, for some oils are so heavy that they have little 
or no tendency to come to the surface of the water 
and a few rare oils will actually settle sluggishly to 
the bottom of a water filled vessel. The weight of the 
oil compared with the weight of an equal volume of 
clear water, at the same temperature is known as its 
specific gravity, and like its colors is a fairly reliable 
indication of its value. The truth is, the lighter the 
oil, the higher the value. For the light oils contain 
a larger percentage of gasoline than the heavy oils, 
and just now, the gasoline content of crude oil has more 
to do with determining its prices than any other thing. 

A fourth characteristic of petroleum is its smell. 
Most Pennsylvania and West Virginia oils have what 
may be called “a paraffine smell.” California oil has 
an entirely different smell, for it contains compounds 
known as aromatic hydro-carbons, which are not found 
in eastern oils. Gulf Coast oil smells more like the 
California than the eastern oils, but not exactly like 
either. Some petroleums have an odor that is almost 
sickening, others are almost fragrant. 

Petroleum is contained in the rocks that underlie 
certain parts of the country. Most oil is found in beds 
of sandstone or limestone, but associated with these 
beds there are invariable shales (improperly called slate, 
by some oil men) and clay. In practically every oil- 
producing region of the world, beds of limestone or 
sandstone lie between thick beds of shale or clay. A 
region without these rocks has small prospects of con¬ 
taining an accumulation of petroleum of any commer¬ 
cial value. Certain other kinds of rock such as granite, 
gneiss, schist and quartzite are distinctly unsuited to 
form oil fields, and drilling in such rock is a waste of 
time and money. Of course, as there are exceptions 
to all rules, a few recorded wells have struck oil below 
rocks such as these indicated, but no paying oil fields 
have ever been opened in such rocks. 


Our Natural Resources 


67 


In every oil field a little oil is scattered so generally 
through the oil-bearing beds that a well reaching below 
at almost any place, is likely to get a showing, such as 
a rainbow-colored film on the drilling water, but oil in 
paying quantities is in comparatively small pools. In 
these pools practically every opening in the oil-bearing 
bed is filled with oil or with the gas that generally 
accompanies it. 

FORMATION OF OIL POOLS 

The formation of an oil pool appears to depend on 
several conditions, while other conditions that are not 
yet clearly recognized or defined, may account for the 
absence of pools. In areas of sedimentary rock by far 
the most important and indeed the only condition that 
can be detected by a study of the surface is the struc¬ 
ture of the rocks, by which is meant the way they are 
folded or tilted. Where the oil-bearing beds are arched 
or bowed upward, the oil has, in many places, formed 
pools at the top of the arches. The ideal form for an 
oil-bearing bed or set of beds is a basin or a set of 
basins turned upside down, but in many places simple 
arching is sufficient to afford a gathering ground for 
oil. Some other types of structural feature are con¬ 
sidered moderately favorable for the accumulation of 
oil, such as the terrace on which the dip or inclination 
of a bed is interrupted by a flattening like a step; or 
a terrace, beyond which the bed again slopes down¬ 
ward at its original angle. The proper location to pros¬ 
pect for oil in a region where it is known to exist is 
in a place where the beds of rock show anticlinal struc¬ 
ture, that is, where the beds are thrown upwards into 
an arch; or as it is called by geologists, an anticline. 

An anticline can perhaps be detected by an un¬ 
trained man, but he is very likely to confuse the struc¬ 
ture with the form of the surface of the ground and 
so be misled. In such cases the practical oil geologist 
should be consulted. Statistics show that out of 33,366 


68 Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 

wells drilled east of the Rockies, 7,388 drilled for oil 
were dry wells, and 2,267 drilled for gas were dry. 
Subtracting this from the total completion leaves 23,711 
productive oil and gas wells. 

Government statistics show that 87 per cent of 
the wells drilled and located by geologists were found 
to be productive. 

In this case if geologists had been consulted there 
would have been only 1,255 dry holes instead of 9,655 as 
above mentioned. 

PETROLEUM SUPPLY NEARING EXHAUSTION 

Of all the raw-material problems confronting the 
world today the most outstanding and acute is the 
problem of its petroleum supply. Petroleum is one of 
our most vital resources. The industrial life of every 
ration depends today upon the products of petroleum; 
for these products lubricate the vehicles of transporta¬ 
tion by land, sea, and air, as well as all the machinery 
engaged in supplying the manufactured articles neces¬ 
sary for modern civilization. The world is now demand¬ 
ing oil. It is indispensable. Without it, many wheels 
of industry would stop. There are in use in the United 
States over 6,000,000 registered automobiles and this 
number is increasing at the rate of over 1,000,000 a 
year, to say nothing of the farm tractors, trucks, air¬ 
planes and motor boats. The automobile industry is 
still in its infancy. Besides, the increase in the use 
of oil as a fuel for our navy, merchant marine, railroads 
and industrial plants amounts to millions of barrels 
annually. A serious shortage of gasoline exists, for 
according to estimates our underground reserves are 
thirty-three and one-third per cent exhausted and we 
are almost at the peak of production. A decline in the 
production of petroleum in the United States is only 
a matter of a short time, while consumption is increas¬ 
ing at an alarming rate. Our oil reserve for the United 
States as far as the pools are concerned, will be ex- 


Our Natural Resources 


69 


hausted within a few years. We are facing an oil 
famine that is liable to paralyze the industrial world. 
The development of producing fields and exploration 
of unproven territory is failing to bridge the ever- 
widening gap between the production and consumption 
of petroleum. 

Our underground pools of petroleum have been 
drained considerably. The domestic use of oil is advanc¬ 
ing at a rate that indicates a yearly consumption of 
more than 6,000,000 barrels in 1920, with the supply 
becoming exhausted in not many years. It is true that 
the Government has spent considerable time and money 
in the last few years in a study of the oil shale deposits. 
As a result of the field examination, made from 1918 
to 1916, it has been clearly demonstrated that this 
potential source of petroleum is so substantial that the 
Government has set aside a special reserve for the 
American Navy of 5,500 acres of oil shale in Utah. 

Until recently the oil shales of the United States 
have been referred to by the Government geologists as 
a reserve supply. When the oil pools are nearing ex¬ 
haustion, and when the demand and price shall warrant, 
the new industry will be established, this supply of 
shale will be available for extraction and will be used to 
supplement the supply of petroleum. The present 
process of extracting the oil from the shale will take 
centuries of time as to the distillation of the shale 
fields. The recently discovered coal, oil, and gas fields 
in Alaska by our own geologists, while as yet undevel¬ 
oped, promise well for the future. It is reported that 
an area covering possibly one million acres has been 
set aside by the Government for future exploration 
that is expected to. prove rich in the production of 
coal, oil, and gas. An immense oil field has been opened 
in Alaska along the McKenzie River. According to 
the mounted police one well drilled by the Imperial Oil 
Company is flowing at the rate of 1,000 barrels an hour 
at 800 feet. Arrangements are being made to pipe the 


70 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


oil to the nearest navigable stream. The field is 300 
miles long and 200 wide. It is known as the Fort Nor¬ 
man field, many prospectors have camped there and 
hundreds more are on their way. The rigors of climate 
will not deter our promoters from operating this field 
and marketing this supply in the states and the future 
of our Navy and Merchant Marine is therefore assured 
in the event that our domestic supply should become 
exhausted. 

The new production credited to the completion 
aggregated 3,388,040 barrels or only 21,097 barrels 
more than in the previous year, a difference that is 
very small, when the great increase in the number of 
completions is taken into consideration. 

The new production was more than double that 
for any previous year. The total is 1,890,635 barrels 
greater than that for 1916, which held the record until 
1919. North Texas leads in the amount of new pro¬ 
duction with 1,046,427 barrels, a loss of nearly 700,000 
barrels when compared with the figures for the previ¬ 
ous year. The percentage for this division was 31, 
whereas in 1919, it contributed more than half of the 
grand total. Oklahoma occupies second place with 
twenty-three per cent. The Gulf Coast follows with 
seventeen per cent and Kansas with six per cent. The 
Kentucky-Tennessee region made the best record of the 
fields east of the Mississippi with 41,354 barrels new 
production, although the division had the least number 
of wells completed during the year. (Experience has 
shown that natural gas is commonly associated with 
anticlinal or roof-shaped folds of the containing rock. 
The line drawn along the highest part of the folds is 
called the axis. A study of the strata of the gas fields 
of Pennsylvania shows that nearly all of them lie close 
to the axis of some anticline.) 

INTENSIVE OIL PRODUCTION 

New records were set in the oil fields in 1920, and 


Our Natural Resources 


71 


this period will go down in history as the most active 
year to that time. A very great number of comple¬ 
tions were the result of intensive operations through¬ 
out the various fields, a condition brought about by 
oil prices being a great deal higher than have been 
paid in Pennsylvania for crude oil since November, 
1869. In the oil fields east of the Rockies there were 
83,366 wells completed during the year 1920, an in¬ 
crease of 4,903 over 1913, which held the highest record 
for six years. The greatest number of completions 
were reported from Oklahoma where the total was 
9,097 or 901 more than for the same division in 1919. 
Second place as to the number of completions goes to 
North Texas with 6,479, an increase of 29,150 over the 
previous year. Kansas was credited with 3,163 wells 
completed, a decline of 279. The Pennsylvania fields 
completed 5,718, an increase of 540. Kentucky and 
Tennessee reported 2,888 new wells, a loss of 828. North 
Louisiana had 1,246, an increase of 542, and the Gulf 
Coast reported a gain of 527, with a total of 1,763. 
Among the completions were 7,383 dry holes and 2,267 
gas wells. Subtracting these from the total leaves 
23,711 productive oil wells, an increase of 3,325 over 
the figures for the previous year. 


CHAPTER X 


NATURAL GAS 

The demands for natural gas are now greater 
than the available supply. Food and trees can be grown. 
Water supplies are constantly replenished by nature, 
but there is no regeneration in natural gas; and when 
the gas is once used it is gone forever. While no one 
knows exactly how natural gas is formed, yet enough 
facts are known about it to indicate that nature’s 
process was very slow during such periods, meaning 
thousands of years. The collecting of the gas from 
the burning, smoldering substances of the forests, the 
extinguishing and drowning out of the fires of the 
forests, the raising and generating of the oil and salt 
water, at the same time were under the generative 
influence of the heat pressure passing into the different 
sands found in the anticlinals. The use of natural gas 
is not an inalienable right, but a privilege enjoyed by 
about ten per cent of our population in the United 
States, used in a most extravagant and wasteful man¬ 
ner, with no regard for the future and not appreciated 
until it is gone. Every appliance known to man should 
be used to bring about the most economical consump¬ 
tion of the gas and the most effective method of trans¬ 
mission and distribution. Since a normal characteristic 
of every gas field is that its natural pressure declines 
as the gas is removed, it becomes necessary to increase 
the rapidly declining pressure by mechanical means. 
Natural gas is a natural resource which men have 
learned to use for the satisfaction of their wants. The 
misconception regarding the position of natural gas 
has arisen from failing to appreciate that man creates 
no new matter, and can merely get the materials of 
nature ready for consumption; since every product of 
industry owes its origin to natural resources. 


72 


Our Natural Resources 


73 


THE FLOW OF GAS 

In Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, the 
flow of gas may be continued for a period of forty to 
fifty years, if the proper locations are made within the 
folds of the hills. This is the belief of the author, a 
coal, oil and gas expert of many years’ experience, who 
has made an extended and very careful study of the 
rock and the formations in the states above mentioned. 
The finding of gas in the Speechley, Bradford, and 
Kane sands, which are of the lower measures and 
under greater rock pressure leads to the above theory 
relative to the durability of the flow. 

WASTE OF NATURAL GAS 

The history of the natural gas industry is an ap¬ 
palling record of almost unbelievable waste. The com¬ 
mon methods of production, transmission, and use, 
have resulted in wasting more gas than has ever been 
utilized. At the present time a survey of the entire 
natural gas industry indicates clearly that the amount 
of waste even today is greater than the amount of gas 
actually consumed. At the present time we are wast¬ 
ing over 800 billion cubic feet of gas per annum. On 
the basis of what it would now cost to replace this 
ideal fuel, the money value of this waste amounts to 
$1,200,000,000.00 a year, or more than $3,000,000.00 
per day. 

Natural gas is purer and has about twice the heat¬ 
ing value of any manufactured gas that can be made. 
Man, with all his skill, has never been able to manu¬ 
facture gas that is equal in quality to the natural gas, 
which is now so generally wasted. To replace the 600 
billion cubic feet of gas now annually used would cost 
about $1,200,000,000.00 annually. 

Domestic consumption was at first very low. Since 
in most fields there is unrestricted competition between 
various companies, this had the immediate effect to 


74 


Coal , Oil , Gas awd Electricity 


make it impossible for any one company to conserve the 
gas for future use without co-operation with its com¬ 
petitors. The public has frowned upon any arrange¬ 
ments for co-operation on the theory that competition 
was desirable. This has resulted in a wild race between 
the various companies, each trying to get the gas out 
of the fields, with the result that the supplies were 
drained very heavily and are, therefore, not available 
for future use. In certain fields about 600 billion cubic 
feet of gas were produced last year. This represents 
about 75 per cent of all gas sold in the United States. 

Natural gas is found in twenty-three states but 
98 per cent of the total production is in West Virginia, 
Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio, Louisiana, Kansas, Cali¬ 
fornia, Texas, and New York. Forty per cent of the 
total production is from West Virginia. 

PROOF OF MEASUREMENTS 

It often happens that when a well is drilled to the 
lower productive measures, such as the Speechley Sand, 
at a depth of 3,270 feet below the Pittsburgh coal ac¬ 
cording to location, or the Bradford and Kane sands 
at a lower depth and no production is found, the well 
is abandoned. This procedure is often a serious mis¬ 
take, as the drill at this depth will often be deflected 
as it penetrates the hard shale and flint-like sands. The 
drill may shift several feet, and in many cases the pro¬ 
ductive sand may not have been penetrated at all. In 
every case where there is any doubt in the mind of the 
promoter and driller a thorough test should be made 
by a minute examination of the sand brought to the 
surface. This would prove £o the satisfaction of all 
concerned that justice had been done and best service 
rendered for the benefit of the owners. When a well 
is completed and capped, a line laid, and the production 
turned into the company’s high pressure line, it should 
be connected with the pressure instead of against the 
pressure. All small wells with a low rock pressure 


Our Natural Resources 


75 


could be utilized and the high pressure line would be 
drawing instead of forcing a large part of the produc¬ 
tion back into the small producer. All production 
should be sold to the distributing companies by the 
use of a Westinghouse, or other reliable meter, through 
which the gas will flow freely and be registered cor¬ 
rectly, thus giving correct measurements for the entire 
production sold therefrom. 

There has been extensive drilling throughout West¬ 
ern Pennsylvania in the various fields since the first 
well was drilled in the Murraysville gas field in 1878. 
It has from the first been a great producer of gas. The 
first well drilled in 1878, the Beaver Valley well, a few 
miles from Apollo, coming in only a few days ahead of 
the Haymaker No. 1 at Murraysville, proved to be the 
largest gas well. It was estimated to have had a flow of 
from twenty to thirty million cubic feet of gas per day 
for five years, before being attached to a pipe line in 
1883. During that year much drilling was done in the 
Murraysville field and it became recognized as the old¬ 
est gas field in the state. Other fields came to prom¬ 
inence; appreciating the fact that the Sewickley field 
is not a new field by any means. It has always been 
a gas and oil producer. There are many wells in this 
locality, some of which have been producing continu¬ 
ously for thirty years. Particular attention has been 
called to this field lately, owing to the statements of 
noted geologists that the Elizabeth and Speechley sands 
underlie a part of this section. 

The McKeesport field where the Youghiogheny 
joins the Monongahela fifteen to sixteen miles southeast 
of Pittsburgh, has been the center of attraction since 
August 23, 1919, when the best paying well in the 
world struck gas at 2,939 feet, in the Speechley sand. 
The flow started at four million cubic feet, quickly 
increasing to sixty-two million cubic feet per day, and 
as the gas had been contracted for at seventeen cents 
or more per thousand feet, it did not take long to net 


76 Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 

the owners a clear million dollars. Investments of 
$150.00 a share are said to have brought dividends of 
over $3,000.00 the first month. The second largest well 
was drilled in the field April 24, 1920, through the 
Speechley sand to a depth of 3,070 feet. The well had 
a flow of 27,672,000 cubic feet of gas a day, drilled by 
the Reynolds Oil and Gas Company. Several companies 
drilled through the Speechley sand and opened a flow 
of between ten and twenty million cubic feet. The 
drilling of wells in this field was so intensive in Snake 
Hollow, Versailles, Bryn Mawr, and Long Run, that it 
almost drained the field in this section. The field was 
about eight miles in length and five miles in width 
across the major axis of the Murraysville anticlinal 
at Snake Hollow. Anyone who thinks that McKees¬ 
port is a new field dees not know that oil and gas were 
drilled for in the Long Run district long before 1878. 

In that year the Bayard well at Elrod Station was 
drilled to a depth of 1,030 feet. Enough gas was struck 
to throw salt water several hundred feet in the air. 
No attempt was made to make it a gas well. Another 
well had been drilled on Ninth street, McKeesport, now 
owned by the Crown Chocloate Company. This oil 
well to the present day shows a production and trac¬ 
ings of oil. A short time later a well was drilled in 
the Tenth ward with tracings and seepage of oil. It 
is in the basement of a dwelling at the present day. 
In the Long Run district several wells have been drilled 
into the Speechley and Bradford sands and were found 
unproductive. Among these wells is the Ripple well, 
which produced about 250,000 cubic feet per day in 
the Elizabeth sand. It was drilled to the Speechley 
sand at a later date, and found productive in that 
formation. The same conditions prevail at the Dravo 
well, the Matthews well, and across the road at the 
Russell well. On the Bayne property a dry well was 
drilled in the lower measures of the productive sands. 
There has been quite extensive drilling from time to 


Our Natural Resources 


77 


time since the Speigle well was brought in with a 
flow estimated at ninety-two million cubic feet. Up to 
that time the Allebrand well was the largest in that 
section for many years. Both of these wells were in 
the hundred foot sand, and eventually were drowned 
out. 

For forty years or more developments have been 
going on in this field with varying success, and per¬ 
haps these activities will continue for many years more. 

On the Murraysville anticlinal the logging of wells 
shows from 2,940 to 3,270 feet to the Speechley sand. 
On the Fayette anticlinal, known also as the Indiana 
anticlinal, wells have been drilled to the Speechley sand 
varying from a depth of 3,320 to 3,538 feet. The John¬ 
son Gas'Company drilled a well through the Speechley 
sand to a depth of 3,538 feet, the Speechley sand being 
at a greater depth in this region. This shows a dipping 
of the sands to the northeast leveling in the Connells- 
ville basin, and raising to the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

There has been quite extensive operation in West¬ 
moreland County by the Latrobe Steel Spring Com¬ 
pany, and the Peoples Natural Gas Company. The 
Peoples Natural Gas Company drilled a well worthy of 
mention in the Blue Ridge Mountains four miles west 
of Ligonier in Kelly’s Hollow along the Lincoln High¬ 
way. It was sunk to the lower productive measures 
of sand, at a depth of 6,200 feet, with a flow of 400,000 
cubic feet per day. The gas is odorless and the well 
is the deepest producing well in Pennsylvania. 

In the following counties: Venango, Mercer, Mar¬ 
ion, Washington, and Allegheny, wells have been drilled 
to the lower productive measures with very good re¬ 
sults as to both oil and gas. Butler, Venango, Craw¬ 
ford and Allegheny Counties are the producers of oil 
in Western Pennsylvania. There are 258,600 active 
wells in the United States winding back and forth m 
an iron net work concealed beneath the oil territory 
of the country. A gigantic system of pipe lines, 50,000 


78 


Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 


miles long, is daily doing work that would require 
200,000 oil tank cars and 8,000 locomotives fully one 
month to handle according to estimates of pipe line 
statistics. 

Virtually every barrel of oil taken from the na¬ 
tion’s 258,600 active wells is transported through these 
pipe lines, and in this way, reaches the oil refineries, 
and consequently the oil markets, weeks and sometimes 
months sooner than if shipped by rail. 

THE HISTORY OF THE PIPE LINE SYSTEM IN 1861. 

Herman Janes, of Erie, Pa., conceived a four-inch 
pipe line from the Tarry farm to Oil City, Pa., but 
never carried it out. Then in 1862 a bill to aid pipe line 
construction was introduced in the Pennsylvania Leg¬ 
islature, but it was beaten by “teamster” opposition. 

In the same year J. L. Hutchins, a New Jersey 
operator, constructed a two-inch pipe line from the 
Tarry farm to Humbolt; but the teamsters destroyed 
the line, tearing up huge strips of it. He tried again 
in 1863 but again the line was destroyed. In 1865, 
with the aid of the police, Henry Harley successfully 
resisted the teamsters and operated the first successful 
line of two-inch pipe handling from six to eight barrels 
a day. Then the net work of lines that operates at 
the present time in Pennsylvania began to spread. The 
new southern field in Oklahoma and adjoining states 
was equipped almost from the beginning with this new 
oil transportation system. The field is a winding space 
of lines. Truck systems extended north to Illinois 
refineries and south to the Gulf Coast stations. 

It is estimated that the pipe lines of the United 
States are worth $500,000,000.00. 

GEOLOGISTS AND SCIENTISTS ARE BAFFLED 

The rumbling sound beneath the earth’s crust in 
the lower strata and fissures through our continents 
underlying the great oceans, and the generating of 


Our Natural Resources 


79 


the gas from the heat possibly thousands of feet below 
the earth’s surface and the gas bursting through these 
main fissures are causes of earthquakes and volcanic 
eruptions. The most plausible theory to account for 
the rumbling sounds is that they are caused by the 
sands and rock formation settling down upon the earth’s 
crust. Through our New England states it is well 
known that the earth is in a process of settling to the 
present day. In Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny forma¬ 
tion little is known of our antielinals and contours shift¬ 
ing, and settling down upon the earth center; since 
within the past years gas has become more active 
through these large extended fissures due to pressure 
upon the crust of the earth by the overlying formation. 



PLANT PRODUCING OIL FROM SHALE 





80 Coal , Oily Gas and Electricity 

Earthquakes are manifest wherever bending of the 
earth’s crust is in evidence, while if this phenomenon 
occurs on the coast, it is accompanied by volcanic 
action. Tremors affect the earth’s crust, which prob¬ 
ably does not exceed thirty miles in thickness, but are 
usually within thousands of miles of the earth’s sur¬ 
face. The greater pull of gravity on the earth’s sur¬ 
face at new and full moons renders earthquakes more 
frequent at these periods. It is suggested that the 
accumulation of these deep low pressures results in 
great explosions. Earthquakes appear almost always 
to be connected with change of barometric pressure. 
We have three principal types of waves accompanying 
a shock, which reach the observing station by three 
separate routes: first, in a direct line through the 
earth; secondly and thirdly, by traveling over the 
earth’s surface in opposite directions. From the time 
elapsing between the arrival of these three waves, it 
is possible to calculate the distance of the earthquake. 

Within the world’s history about 30,000,000 people 
have been swallowed up or killed by earthquakes. 
Twelve thousand persons were killed in the Chinese 
Province of Kansu by the quake which occurred there in 
March, 1921. According to advices received here Kansu 
Province is near the Spensi border of China. Scien¬ 
tists are interested because phenomena of this kind 
observed in other places constitutes a mystery that 
has never been satisfactorily explained. The remark¬ 
able example of this phenomenon occurred in 1784. 
For an entire month the Mexican town of Guanajuato 
was kept in terror by a succession of subterranean 
roarings and explosions unaccompanied by the tremb¬ 
ling of an earthquake in the vicinity of the flat shoal 
mountains. In North Carolina, the dwellers have been 
much alarmed at intervals during the past year by un¬ 
accountable rumbling and explosive noises; they fear 
lest the mountains may become an active volcano. 
During a period covering at least a century a small 


Our Natural Resources 


81 


town in Connecticut was famous for what were called 
Moodus Noises, 

These noises were like the reports of big guns 
heard from a distance of many miles. They were not 
caused by blasting, which in recent years they have 
heard occasionally, having been much louder. In Italy 
it is ouite common in some localities and the natives 
and peasants attribute them to supernatural origin. 
They resemble a distant or muffled discharge of can¬ 
non, sometimes single and sometimes in succession. 
Usually they are heard when the sky is calm and 
clear. An Italian scientist gave them the name bron- 
tidies, meaning thunderlike. They are certainly not 
thunder, however, and a queer thing about these deton¬ 
ations is that they always seem to be at a distance. 
Along the shores of Ireland, the little isle so green, 
mysterious explosions unaccompanied by earthquakes 
have been long known as water guns. On the coast of 
Belgium loud detonations of the same character are 
often heard and are called by the people sea cannons. 
It may be possible that geologists and scientists, study¬ 
ing the underlying strata beneath the earth’s crust, 
will locate the main fissures containing this great vol¬ 
ume and supply. The discovery and utilizing of these 
available products may be brought to light within the 
near future. 

CONSERVATION AN ECONOMIC NECESSITY 

With the available supply of coal, oil, and wood 
rapidly diminishing, we are facing a situation that 
in the not far distant future will mean restricted use 
of these products or a discontinuance of their use en¬ 
tirely. Wasteful extravagance is in a large measure 
responsible for this condition and unless remedial leg¬ 
islation soon becomes effective in the checking of waste 
and extravagance we will be face to face with a total 
exhaustion of these most essential products. Then 
the wheels of progress would be brought to a standstill 


82 


Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 


and disintegration and ultimate dissolution would come 
to our country. The logical solution to the problem is 
rigid conservation. It is true that some effort has been 
made to conserve the forests and to replenish by re¬ 
planting and cultivation, but much remains to be done 
even in forest conservation and practically nothing has 
been attempted in the way of restricting the use of oil, 
gas, or coal. 

Our great manufacturing plants, railroads and big 
buildings, depending largely upon coal for operation, 
lighting and heating, are consuming coal so rapidly 
that the country will be drained of these products with¬ 
in the next one hundred years. It is estimated that in 
the use of coal in factories, blast furnaces, hot mills, 
and railroad engines, such a tremendous draught 
straight pressure is required that a waste of 25 to 45 
per cent coloric measure is incurred. Cannot these 
losses be either entirely eliminated or at least largely 
reduced? 

What is the penalty? 

DISTILLATION OF LIQUID FUEL 

Not coming, but already here, we have just entered 
the epoch of liquid fuel. The age of liquid fuel has 
already commenced, and we are only at the beginning 
of immense technical, industrial, and social develop¬ 
ments. All over the world power alcohol can be dis¬ 
tilled from well nigh every form of vegetation, in the 
tropics especially, where the growth is rapid. Untold 
and ceaseless supplies of power alcohol can be obtained 
from the annual growths of many vegetable substances. 
Back of all this we have the possibility of laboratory 
making of synthetic liquid fuels. All fuels are com¬ 
pounds of hydrogen and carbon. Every act of com¬ 
bustion links carbon with oxygen. In water we have 
a universal supply of hydrogen linked with oxygen. 

The problem then is, to take carbon from the air 
and hydrogen from water and combine them to make 


Out Natural Resources 


83 


the whole range of liquid fuel. From petrology to heavy 
oil, the coal areas of the world cover about 772,700 
square miles, the United States and China far exceed¬ 
ing all others. The life of the world’s coal at the 
present rate of output is a question not quite so simple, 
as it is complicated with other factors, such as the 
future growth of the demands for coal, and the use of 
other fuels, etc. Among the nations, the United States 
leads with a production of over five hundred million 
tons. Britain and her dependencies produce nearly one- 
third of the world’s output. 

WHAT IS THE PENALTY? 

No problem is so difficult that a solution is im¬ 
possible, and the logical conclusion is to substitute 
some other power for the operation of the large fuel 
wasting factories, mills, and engines of various kinds. 
The operating of great power houses where electricity 
is generated for trolley car systems makes a heavy 
drain upon our reserve supply. We believe that it is 
possible to furnish power at a minimum cost, and for 
this water power is available. The chain of great lakes 
skirting our northern border is admirably situated, 
ready to be harnessed for service in the greatest enter¬ 
prise of modern civilization. It is true that the first 
cost of this enterprise would be enormous, but the con¬ 
serving of our fuel supply would amply repay for its 
promotion. Sufficient power may be thus secured to 
operate all the great electric plants of the middle west 
and eastern states. In addition to providing this power, 
which seems to be so essential, at a minimum cost out 
of this development, inland canals could be constructed 
which would relieve, in some measure, our overburdened 
transportation systems, which has been a serious prob¬ 
lem for the past several years, causing largely increased 
costs to the ultimate consumer of the most staple 
products. 

Another fact which might mean much to hu- 


84 


Coal, Oily Gas and Electricity 


manity, as an outgrowth of these great develop¬ 
ments, would be the easy construction of sluices and 
other waterways for the irrigating and fertilizing of 
much of our arid, unproductive soil in the great farm¬ 
ing sections of the middle western and southern states. 
So many assured beneficial results can be obtained from 
using the power contained in the basins of the great 
lakes that we feel like urging our legislatures and the 
Congress to enact favorable laws, and immediately pro¬ 
vide means for the securing of these great benefits to 
mankind, and thus safeguarding for future generations 
ample protection and adequate supplies of the necessi¬ 
ties of life. 


CHAPTER XI 


ELECTRICITY 

The analysis of the compounding liquid fuel sub¬ 
stances shows that they may be ultimately compounded 
and used in place of gasoline and furnish heat units 
for motor power transportation; also the collection of 
the transmutation acid waves of the volatile liquid fuel 
substance of the atmosphere forms electricity when 
properly balanced and placed in contact and in conjunc¬ 
tion with the proper fuel substances and mineral de¬ 
posits of the earth. Collecting electricity from the air 
will also furnish power, light and heat to the machin¬ 
ery of the world, generating and transmitting electrici¬ 
ty to supply motor power to automobiles, enterprises 
and homes. Electricity will be taken from the atmo¬ 
sphere; all these phenomena will no doubt take place 
in the near future. 

The electrifying of our great railroad systems be¬ 
gan over eight years ago, and is the universal question 
of the age. More than eighty years ago Thomas Dav¬ 
enport, a Brandon, Vermont, blacksmith, completed a 
working model of an electric railway. A few years later 
a car was ready for a trial trip, the power being pro¬ 
vided by an electro-magnetic engine. This device was 
driven over a circular track in Springfield. Mr. Daven¬ 
port, apparently satisfied that public conveyances could 
be propelled by electricity, rested on the honors he had 
achieved. News of the devices spread and stirred into 
action a score of able men, among whom were Profes¬ 
sors Moses G. Farmer, C. G. Page and Thomas Hall. 
They labored for years to perfect an electric railway, 
but their efforts were futile. Professor Page came the 
nearest to success. In the spring of 1887 his car ran 
between Washington, D. C., and Bladenburg, Md., a 


85 


86 Coal , Oily Gas and Electricity 

distance of five and a quarter miles. The maximum 
speed was eighteen miles an hour and it proved too 
much for the professor's batteries, which were ruined. 

It was generally conceded that progress had been 
made and thereafter, for a period of thirty years, many 
inventors tinkered away at batteries and made many 
trials, but there was always something the matter, 
which convinced the majority that the use of electricity 
for transportation purposes was merely an interesting 
thought, like perpetual motion. 

Then entered the field the experimenter Thomas 
A. Edison and Stephen Field, who advanced so far that 
in 1879 Mr. Field filed an application for a patent on a 
third-rail system. Mr. Edison built a small road, and 
after many trials it became known that the use of 
electricity as power for transportation was practicable. 
In 1883 Field and Edison produced an electric locomo¬ 
tive that moved around a small circular track at the 
Chicago and Louisville Expositions. 

During the long period of tests and failures Frank 
J. Sprague, a student at the United States Naval Acad¬ 
emy, had followed with deep interest the various at- 
temps to make a success of the idea, and in 1883 he 
resigned from the Navy and for five years made an 
intensive study of electricity and how it might be 
controlled for use in transportation. Some of his tests 
were made in Pittsburgh before distinguished gather¬ 
ings. Everything was going nicely and financiers were 
becoming interested in the matter, when one day a 
fuse blew out during a trial. There was a startling 
flash, and the car was out of business. Then Mr. 
Sprague interested Oscar T. Crosby, afterwards Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury, and S. Dane Green, in his in¬ 
vention. They all went to Richmond, Va., where on 
a very dark night early in 1888 the first electric car 
was tested. It ran well under electric propulsion until 
it came to a hill, when it bucked, and four mules were 
commandeered to drag the car back to the barn. 


Our Natural Resources 


87 


Efforts to perfect the mechanism were continued 
until finally a car was placed in service. Passengers 
were willing enough to ride in it, but they soon grew 
doubtful of ever being able to reach their destinations 
with an “electric horse.” There was more or less 
trouble at all times, and winter storms added to the 
general uncertainty of electric travel. These first elec¬ 
tric cars in Richmond were run over a mud road-bed 
on rails one-third the weight of those used today. The 
road was ballasted, the wooden stringers being laid in 
dirt. But despite these disadvantages the first round 
trip of a little more than three miles was made in about 
an hour. More cars were added, and finally they be¬ 
came an everyday sight, and experts employed by other 
local railroad companies were sent to Richmond to 
study the new contrivance. The news traveled abroad, 
and Mr. Sprague went to Italy to install an electric 
road there. 

According to electric experts, the precise date when 
the electric car was proved practicable was May 4th, 
1888, and the thirty-third anniversary was celebrated 
with ceremonies in many of the smaller cities. During 
these thirty-three years the electric railway industry 
has made enormous strides. A statement issued by 
the American Electric Railway Association says that 
today there are 80,000 electrically propelled passenger 
cars in the United States, and that they carry annually 
14,000,000,000 passengers, or ten times as many as ride 
on steam railways. The receipts of the various com¬ 
panies this year will, it is estimated, amount to several 
hundred million dollars. There is invested in the lines 
approximately $5,000,000,000, the trackage is 44,400 
miles and 300,000 men are employed in the service. 

WHAT IS ELECTRICITY? 

It has been the universal question of the ages past. 
It is the most powerful element in nature and is rapid¬ 
ly becoming the most useful agency of civilization 


88 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


through the scientific efforts of human genius. The 
progress made in the generating, concentrating, and 
controlling electricity, making it a servant of mankind 
is the marvel of the age in which we are now living. 

THE ANSWER IS: MINERAL, ANIMAL, AND 
VEGETABLE LIFE 

Decompositions of wood, vegetable, and animal life 
going through a process of deterioration each day and 
year; and in their disintegration sending forth life- 
giving elements, chemical compounds, and substances 
furnishing materials necessary to new growth; under¬ 
going a perpetual process of transmutation until life 
ceases to flourish and completely decomposes. The de¬ 
composed matter contains billions of elements and 
chemicals of various species. These different sub¬ 
stances send forth many gas by-products and distribute 
electricity through the atmosphere. These newly 
formed growths in their environments absorb many 
carbon gases and chemical composition of decomposed 
matter on their return to life. By the mist, rain, and 
dampness all these forms of life send forth by the 
decomposed matter a perpetual and new supply of elec¬ 
tricity, gas, and by-products each day. These lower 
forms of life we term minerals, copper, zinc, radium, 
gas, etc., one depending upon the other for existence. 
When we reach the surface, we find a high form of life 
which manifests itself in growth. The various species 
of trees and plants during maturity and growth absorb 
hydrogen, oxygen, and dioxide. 

Many species of the plant life during maturity and 
growth, such as poison ivy, laurel, and others, absorb 
carbon monoxide and oxalic gas, a very poisonous sub¬ 
stance. The growths of grain contain many chemical 
elements, wheat 16, oats 14, etc., and absorb hydrogen 
and oxygen. Vegetable, mineral and animal life con¬ 
tain millions of elements and chemical compositions. 
All forms of life contain electricity, one greater than 


Our Natural Resources 


89 


the other. These forms of life take many years going 
through a process of decay, each day becoming more 
nearly extinct; from time to time the new growths 
taking the place of the former growths. 

WHAT ARE WAVES OF ELECTRICITY? 

The substance of mineral, vegetable and animal 
life; the essence of each specie of life contains gas. 
Each specie of life links gas with combustion. The 
growth of grain and grass, which is nature’s first 
production, absorbs hydrogen, a colorless gas, which 
is a more volatile and inflammable substance, and the 
lightest element yet known, being fourteen and one- 
half times lighter than air. When combined with 
oxygen it produces water. Many trees and plants ab¬ 
sorb more carbon gases than others, as they are of a 
heavier and liquid form and not as volatile. Various 
vegetable growths breathe hydrogen, oxygen, and ni¬ 
trogen, from the rain, mist, and dampness, absorbing 
nourishment, breathing and sustaining life and growth. 
At midnight, when the mist and dew are falling fast, 
the various species of life, trees, plants, and grain 
absorb nourishment more freely. The atmosphere 
containing these acid gases is more volatile and purer. 
These chemical elements and waves properly balanced 
and purified in conjunction with hydrogen and oxygen, 
in combination with nitrogen and argon, the changing 
of the gases and elements of the clouds, mist, dew, and 
vapor, settling and uniting more freely at midnight, 
no doubt are essential as to the essence and waves of 
electricity, perfectly and properly balancing the chemi¬ 
cal elements which have made this product possible. 

The atmosphere is saturated with gases forming 
waves of electricity, like the ocean waves, of volumes of 
steam winding its way into space. The rising of the sun 
each twenty-four hours, with illuminating power and 
magnetic power of attraction, permeating to the center 
of the earth, sends forth light and heat, thereby per- 


90 


Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 


forming the functions and duties of nature, a most im¬ 
portant one being to purify these gaseous acid waves 
when carried through the atmosphere to a higher alti¬ 
tude by this magnetic power of attraction. The gases 
and acids of the various species of life unite more freely 
in conjunction with nitrogen and argon, more volatile 
substances, and rise to a higher altitude by distillation 
of the acids and volatile waves of the heavy acid gases, 
and acids of mineral, vegetable, and animal life, in 
combination with hydrogen, oxygen and ozone, a pure 
substance of the electromassage and transmutation 
of the volatile acid substance. The consummation and 
concentration of the waves of electricity in space and 
attracting of the acid waves make possible radio 
telegraphy. The rising sun each twenty-four hours 
has its functions and duties to perform such as perme¬ 
ating the center of the earth. The magnetic attracti- 
bility and reflection of light and power of gravity of 
the sun upon the center of the earth properly balances 
these elements and substances and sends forth waves 
and elements and chemical compositions, nourishing 
and sustaining life and growth each twenty-four hours. 

The balancing, refining, and uniting of the waves 
of gases and volatile substances combine with hydro¬ 
gen, oxygen and ozone. Nitrogen is a gas which with 
argon constitutes 4-5 of the volume of the atmosphere; 
it is the basis of nitric acid and rises to a higher alti¬ 
tude by distillation of the substance of each specie of 
life, mineral, vegetable, and animal. 

The distillation of the volatile acids forms a greater 
and more powerful acid and consumer of electricity. 
This powerful volatile acid in conjunction with ozone, 
transmitted into space, forms the waves of electricity. 
The magnetic power of attractability and extension of 
sound is more easily carried by the placing and ac¬ 
complishing of the greater and more powerful elements 
and chemical compounds which have a more magnetic 
power of attracting the waves of electricity in this new 


Our Natural Resources 


91 


field of industry by concentration of radio telegraphy. 

The atmosphere becomes saturated, collecting, ac¬ 
cumulating, and spreading the waves of gases and elec¬ 
tricity by the reflection and magnetic attraction of the 
sun on the surface of the earth, thereby properly bal¬ 
ancing these chemical products into winding circles 
and spaces, in the current of the air; and when the 
rain and electric storms approach and take place, the 
lightning burns up this surplus supply of electricity, 
gas, and impurities found in the currents of the air, 
thereby purifying the atmosphere. This heavy atmos¬ 
phere saturated with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen 
from the waters of the oceans and seas sends forth 
volumes and clouds of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. 
Fog and mist across the land nourish and sustain the 
various species of life in their environment and trans¬ 
mutation of life and growth. 

This atmosphere purified, becomes calm and clear, 
and is known as ozone. The transformation by the 
attractability and extending of sound, is more volatile 
and clearer. This atmosphere purified and volatile, at¬ 
tracts and carries the sound over the land across our 
great lakes, into mid ocean and across the great seas. 
The mysteries of nature attract the sound, and waves 
of electricity are picked up by radio telegraphy. The 
linking and uniting together of our great lakes, oceans, 
and seas, with the land and the magnetic attraction of 
the sun draws the water over the land, into space. 

Hydrogen is a colorless, gaseous, inflammable sub¬ 
stance, which liquifies under great pressure, and is the 
lightest element known. When combined with oxygen, 
a colorless, odorless gas, it forms water; and in con¬ 
junction with nitrogen and argon, constitutes one-fifth 
by volume of the atmosphere surrounding the earth. 

The magnetic attraction of the sun properly bal¬ 
ances these elements and gaseous acids. The essence and 
acid waves form electricity. They send forth gases and 
unite the greater minerals and chemical elements of 


92 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


the various species of life. Our great oceans and seas, 
are the sounding boards, linking and connecting up the 
sound midway between land and the greater and more 
powerful chemical elements of mineral, animal and 
vegetable life. The atmosphere is more calm and clear¬ 
er and susceptible as to carrying and attracting sound, 
than the land, as the structure is at a higher altitude 
and the obstructions on the land affect the carrying 
of the sound. These elements and acids may ultimately 
be compounded and combined so as to produce a solu¬ 
tion or liquid containing the original units of power 
and multiplied by concentration; this product would be 
very useful. Many trees and plants have greater chem¬ 
ical elements in their composition than others, as the 
chestnut, locust, oaks, etc.; the chestnut has the great¬ 
est quantity of chemical elements as well as the most 
magnetism. The writer has seen where lightning was 
attracted by the magnetism of the greater chemicals 
striking this particular species of tree. It is known 
that stakes made for fence purposes were struck by 
lightning twenty years after they had been placed in 
the ground, due to the chemicals in the wood attract¬ 
ing, through magnetic power, the electricity of the air, 
and forming a current to the ground. These growths 
of life in their environment having reached maturity 
or felled in growth, when life ceases to flourish, die 
and return to nature's earth, the loam containing 
eighteen inches to several feet of soil, and retaining 
many of the producing elements. 

Scientists and electrical engineers, after studying 
the many inventions, apparatuses and devices for gen¬ 
erating, transmitting, and distributing this valuable 
product, claim, if poles were placed around the earth 
extending one from another a complete circuit would 
be formed. The earth rotates 24,000 miles a day; then 
these wires would cut the lines of force and would 
create an electrical current, which would supply half 
the world at a minimum cost. If this is true that the 


Our Natural Resources 


93 


earth rotates, or whether the sun has its path to 
travel, as the magnetic power of attraction of the sun 
gathers and properly balances the chemical waves of 
electricity into winding circles and space, making the 
essential product possible, the placing of poles properly 
wired would collect the great chemical attraction of 
the waves in zones and distristc. No doubt, when 
properly established, this power will be sufficient to 
supply one-half to three-quarters of the world at a 
minimum cost. 

The harnessing up of this most valuable product 
for the future is most essential and means the keeping 
of the wheels of industry in operation, as it will be 
only a short time until the supply of coal, oil, gas, and 
wood will become exhausted; and we will have to use 
electricity, the most wonderful of all nature’s products. 
The electrifying and extending of our great railroad 
systems, the branching out of our street railways 
and electric machine shops and mills, and lighting and 
illuminating of our large buildings and homes; the 
many new inventions and devices; and all our future 
progress will depend largely upon the collecting and dis¬ 
tributing of the waves of this most essential product. 
The exhaustion of our precious coal fields being most 
alarming to industry, turning the wheels of prosperity; 
the acquiring of a new source of energy is the greatest 
asset the Government can develop. In the consumption 
and willfully extravagant waste of coal, a mineral that 
contains over 18,000 by-products to the ton, billions of 
dollars have been lost by the failure to appreciate and 
reclaim these many by-products. The oil fields are 
becoming weakened by lubricating our wheels of in¬ 
dustry; our gas supply is ceasing to flourish; wood is 
diminishing and the crying need of reforestry is heard. 
All industries must depend largely on electricity as 
the future power. 

Hydrogen is a colorless, gaseous, inflammable sub¬ 
stance, which liquifies under great pressure and is the 


94 Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 

lightest element yet known, being fourteen and one- 
half times lighter than air. When combined with oxy¬ 
gen it produces water. Hydrogen is the standard unit 
for the estimation of atomic weights and volumes. 
Oxygen, a colorless inodorous gas, which, with nitro¬ 
gen and argon, constitutes one-fifth by volume of the 
atmosphere, and in combination with hydrogen forms 
water. Nitrogen is a gas which with argon constitutes 
four-fifths by volume of the atmosphere and constitutes 
the basis of nitric acid. Carbon is an elementary sub¬ 
stance present in all organic compounds and occurring 
in nature in two distinct forms as the diamond and 
graphite. The action of heat on vegetable and animal 
tissues produces carbon in the form of charcoal, lamp¬ 
black, coke, etc. 

Ash, the residue of plants or animal substances, 
remains after subjection to red heat—the waste of 
burnt coal or the remains of a human body when cre¬ 
mated. Sulphur is a non-metallic element, brittle and 
of yellow color, insoluble in water, but fusible by heat. 
Hydrogen peroxide is defined as hydrogen dioxide. It 
is an unstable compound, H. 0., containing relatively 
twice as much oxygen as does water. It occurs in 
minute quantities in the air, and also in rain and snow. 
An aqueous solution of it is obtained by the action of 
dilute acids on barium dioxide. In medicine it is used 
as an antiseptic. Hydrogen oxide, chemically, is water, 
H 2 0. 

Nitroglycerine is a highly explosive, oily liquid, 
prepared by the action of nitric and sulphuric acids 
upon glycerine, as is also nitroleum. Sulphite, chemi¬ 
cally, is a binary compound of sulphur. 

Excepting the sulphides of the alkali and alkaline 
earth metals the metallic sulphides are insoluble in 
water, or nearly so, and many occur as minerals. Binary 
compounds of sulphur with the more negative elements, 
bromine, chlorine, fluorine, iodine, and oxygen are not 
usually called sulphides. Hydro-carbon is a compound 


Our Natural Resources 


95 


containing only hydrogen and carbon. Carbon monox¬ 
ide is a colorless, odorless gas, C 0, almost the only 
definitely known compound in which carbon seems to 
be bivalent. It is a product of incomplete combustion 
of carbon. Carbon disulphide is a clear liquid, CS., of 
high refractive power and unless perfectly pure, of very 
disagreeable odor. It dissolves caoutchouc and several 
other substances not soluble in water. Carbon dioxide 
is a heavy, colorless gas, C0 2 ; it extinguishes flames 
and is popularly called carbonic acid gas. 

Nitric acid is a monobasic acid, HN0 3 , com¬ 
posed of hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, and is formed 
by the action of sulphuric acid on nitrates. Oxide is 
a binary compound of oxygen with an element or radi¬ 
cal, as iron oxide, methyl oxide, nitrogen oxide, etc. 
Disulphide—(a) This compound contains two atoms of 
sulphur combined with an element or radical—called 
also bisulphide, (b) A compound of one atom of sul¬ 
phur with two of another element. Oxalic designates 
or pertains to a dibasic acid, C 2 H0 4 , or COOH 2 , 
existing in oxal. It is an acid potassium oxalate. Ox¬ 
alic acid is obtained as a white crystalline substance. 
It is produced and prepared on a large scale by the 
action of fused caustic soda or potash on sawdust. Mon¬ 
oxide is a colorless, odorless gas, a product of incom¬ 
plete combustion of carbon. Ammonia is a transparent, 
pungent volatile gas used in medicine and the arts, spir¬ 
its of hartshorn and a middle oil. Methane is an in¬ 
flammable liquid obtained from the distillation of wood 
and coal, also methene, methlene, etc. 

ATMOSPHERE 

The aeriform fluid surrounding the earth is com¬ 
posed of 79 parts by volume of nitrogen with 21 parts 
of oxygen and carbonic acid and argon, with a varying 
proportion of aqueous vapor, ammonia, ozone and or¬ 
ganic matter. This gaseous envelope of the acid fluid 
waves is believed to be the same as that surrounding 
the heavenly bodies. 


96 


Coal, Oil, Gas and Electricity 


Chemical Elements Symbols 

Argon—An element associated with nitrogen and 
one of the constituents of the air. 

Ozone—An allotropic form of oxygen present in the 
atmosphere especially after electric dis¬ 
turbance. 

Hydrogen _H 

Oxygen_O 

Nitrogen _N 

Carbon _C 

Sulphur_S 

Ash_A 

Hydrogen Peroxide_H 2 

Hydrogen Oxide_H.,0 

Sulphide—A chemical binary compound of_Sulphur 

Hydro-Carbon—A compound of hydrogen and carbon_ 


_H.C. 

Carbon Monoxide_CO 

Carbon Dioxide_C0 2 

Carbon Trioxide_CO. 

Carbon Disulphide_CS 2 

Nitric Acid—A monobasic acid_HNO, 

Oxide—A binary compound of oxygen with an element. 

Disulphide_S 2 

Oxalic Acid_COOH. 

Monoxide_NO. 

Ammonia _NH 3 

Sulphate_CH 4 

Methane_C 2 H 6 

Nitrogen Monoxide is nitrous oxide. 

Coke Analysis Dry Basis_Moisture 

Fixed Carbon 

Sulphur 

Ash 

British Thermal Measurement (Units)_B. T. U. 


NATURAL EXAMPLES OF THE ATMOSPHERE OVER¬ 
CHARGED WITH CARBONIC ACID GAS 
The most remarkable natural example of the at¬ 
mosphere contaminated with carbonic acid gas in cer¬ 
tain sections is found in the Valley of Death on the 
island of Java. Due to the barrenness of the valley and 
elements of the organic substances and settling of the 























Our Natural Resources 


97 


sediments of the greater acid gases of the atmosphere 
falling to the lowlands and valleys, these conditions are 
brought about. No vegetable life exists, and the acids 
and more volatile gases absorb the elements necessary 
to the maintenance of vegetable and animal life. Where 
the valleys are of a more gentle folding and the sub¬ 
stances are more equally balanced by the nourishing of 
vegetable life by the aeriform fluid of the atmosphere, 
elements upon which living organisms feed are more 
evenly distributed. 

Death Valley has never been fully explored, because 
of the danger of remaining more than a few moments 
in its poisonous atmosphere. Approached through an 
opening between the hills, it is seen to be an oval¬ 
shaped valley, about half a mile across. It is about 
thirty-five feet deep; the bottom is hard and sandy, 
without vegetation, and strewn with large stones. The 
surface is covered with the bones of animals, birds and 
human beings. This is because the carbonic acid gas, 
being heavier than the atmosphere, settles to the bot¬ 
tom of the valley. Dogs and fowls, thrown into it, fall 
senseless instantly and die in a few minutes. No craters 
or fissures are visible on the level of this valley, and it 
is thought that the openings are near the base of the 
rock surrounding the immediate hills. 

Another valley similar in atmospheric conditions 
is the “Death Valley” of California. 

HEALTH CONSERVATION 

The accumulation of the decomposed wood of the 
forests and decayed vegetable and animal matter, as 
well as the gas, smoke, graphite and other verdure de¬ 
stroying elements and deadly germs carried up by the 
currents of the air, pollute and contaminate the atmo¬ 
sphere and carry these elements over the land to all 
parts of the country during the day; and when night 
approaches, the settling of the mists and fogs brings 
them down where man breathes the atmosphere more 


98 Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 

freely and becomes sick. From this same cause ani¬ 
mals become infected by the contagious diseases such 
as distemper, diphtheria, etc., they being even more 
susceptible than the human race. Among the animals 
that spread diseases are our domestic animals, the 
horse, the dog, and the cat. The air is only purified 
by the electric storms that burn up the gas germs and 
poisonous substances contained in the currents of at¬ 
mosphere. In the lowlands and in the congested cen¬ 
ters, we find the greatest menaces to health. In boggy, 
marshy valleys, where stagnant streams and pools of 
polluted water accumulate, absorbing a drainage of 
filth from the surrounding hills, there are bred all forms 
of the most dangerous and malignant diseases. 

The draining of these pools, and the use of proper 
chemicals in the stagnant water will in a large measure 
dispel the dangers emanating from these sources. O 
of the most serious sources of danger in our large 
cities is the congregating of our foreign population in 
the poorer districts; and constant care should be exer¬ 
cised in the supervision of these sections where open 
cesspools and accumulation of all sorts of filth are 
found in cellars, in yards, and in alleys. Decaying 
vegetation is another source of serious danger and the 
burial or incineration of such matter in a properly con¬ 
structed garbage furnace is the practical solution to 
this problem. In parts of Europe decayed vegetables 
are collected and distilled and many liquid fuels de¬ 
rived, such as alcohol, ammonia gas and many other 
valuable products. “Clean up” should be the watch¬ 
word of every city, town, village, and hamlet. 

Hygiene, the most important subject that con¬ 
fronts the mind of man, has been largely a neglected 
science. Even though much has been accomplished in 
the past few decades, to eliminate contagious diseases 
of the most serious types, practically nothing has been 
attempted by medical science or health organizations 
for the improvement of health conditions, and purify- 


Our Natural Resources 


99 


ing of the atmosphere by chemical compositions. We 
are all convinced that health destroying and even death 
germs pollute the air we are breathing. A strong 
physical body may be able to withstand these germs for 
many years without showing the evil effects sure to 
result from such contamination; but ultimately, as 
age creeps on and the organic system becomes impaired 
and less able to throw off these germs, the victim 
weakens and prematurely dies. It is true that the 
average length of human life has been materially in¬ 
creased during the past twenty years by a scientific 
study of germ infection and improved sanitation and 
the use of medical compounds; but only a start has been 
made in this direction. During the world war a great 
epidemic broke out known as cholera or black fever, 
which cost many a life, due to the decomposed animal 
matter carried in the currents of the air to all parts of 
the world. The settling of the heavy atmosphere 
brought the poisonous germs to the lowlands, where 
people breathed them and took sick. Much remains to 
be done in the way of co-operation with nature in 
clearing and purifying the atmosphere. 

IN CHETTRO KETTLE WAS FOUND AN APARTMENT 
OF A THOUSAND ROOMS 

Modern apartment houses, comprising perhaps 
thirty suites and a total of two hundred rooms, are 
looked upon as achievements in the building art. But 
what would some of our present-day architects and 
builders think of an apartment house containing a thou¬ 
sand rooms, and so substantially constructed that, al¬ 
though built ten centuries or more ago, the walls are 
still in an excellent state of preservation? 

Complete and indisputable evidence of such an 
apartment has recently been unearthed in what is 
known today as Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Archae¬ 
ologists working under directions at Santa Fe have 
brought to light the remains of a huge structure which, 


100 Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 

in their belief, was occupied a thousand years or more 
ago by a race which has suffered complete oblivion. 

In recent years the desert sands have been swept 
aside in Chaco Canyon, revealing one wonder after an¬ 
other. But the greatest wonder of all has been found 
in the section known as Chettro Kettle. Here was found 
an apartment of a thousand rooms which, entirely 
buried for centuries, would occupy two large blocks if 
set down in a modern American city. Its great curved 
front extends for seven hundred feet, and in its walls 
are fifty million pieces of quarried stone, not to men¬ 
tion thousands of logs, poles and slabs which were evi¬ 
dently cut in distant forests, transported by man power, 
and set in their respective places with the aid of stone 
implements. According to the archaeologists in charge 
of the work of excavating, all signs point to the fact 
that this building was not erected by slaves, as in the 
case of the pyramids, but by a virile people who found 
pleasure in the work. 



APARTMENT HOUSE OF A THOUSAND ROOMS 






Our Natural Resources 


101 


It is estimated that five years will be required to 
complete the work of excavating Chettro Kettle, al¬ 
though enough has already been done to demonstrate 
the marvelous constructive ability of the ancient but 
unknown race that was responsible for the building. 
In enduring, residential architectural qualities this race 
attained to levels not surpassed by the architects of 
the ancient world. Here is a building which, abandoned, 
unroofed and in many places exposed to the elements, 
stands as very few specimen walls in any land have 
withstood the ages. Archaeologists say that in wall 
construction the Chaco builders were unsurpassed and 
that it is doubtful if our modern masonry will be as 
enduring. 

From observations at Chettro Kettle, American 
Research is convinced that the people who lived in 
Chettro Kettle were of a race that matured in its cul¬ 
ture without serious interruption, and that mysterious¬ 
ly went into oblivion at the summit of its civilization. 
There is here no evidence of a decaying civilization, 
such as may be seen even today in sections of the Rio 
Grande Valley. But, while all signs point to the fact 
that abandonment came at the full tide of life, there 
are also no signs of sudden destruction, a fact which 
makes the disappearance of this race more mysterious 
than ever. It is hoped that somewhere within the 
ruins of Chettro Kettle something may be found which 
will tell the name and something of the blood, language 
and cultural potentialities of these remarkable people. 
All that is known now is that the community consisted 
of approximately ten thousand people and that some 
three thousand acres of cultivated land kept them in 
food. 

Looking down into the excavated portions of the 
ruins, one gets an excellent idea of the knowledge of 
construction possessed by these people who lived more 
than a thousand years ago. Reinforcement of parti¬ 
tion walls was frequently gained by embedding timbers 


102 Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 

in the masonry, just as the concrete walls of today are 
reinforced by iron rods. Floors and ceilings were con¬ 
structed by first laying heavy supporting timbers 
across from wall to wall. Upon these were laid smaller 
logs, placed closely side by side, over these came thin 
cedar slabs, next a layer of cedar bark, and finally a 
solidly packed layer of earth. Some of the rooms 
show a remarkable state of preservation of both mason¬ 
ry and timber. 


CHAPTER XIl 


TREES—PLANTS—FOLIAGE—FLOWERS 

We behold the perfect symmetry and perfect 
grandeur in Creation, in the realm of nature and her 
laws, of the great growths of the forests of the earth 
in their environment, and the mineral deposits of vege¬ 
table life treasured in the strata and folds of the earth 
by Almighty God, the just Creator, who presides over 
the destiny of all creation. The forests of our great 
continent—the giant forests of California and Mexico 
—with their great growths of Sequois and cypress 
trees, some of them tiny babes of a year, springing 
shapely from the warm, moist soil; some of them are 
youngsters of a thousand years, just peering over the 
top of the sugar pines; some of them youths of two 
thousand years, with fine rounded crowns and huge 
bent arms hugging their plumed trunks; some of them 
majestic seniors three hundred feet in height who be¬ 
gan life while the'dreams of silent night hovered over 
their brows. 

Perhaps the “General Sherman” was a healthy 
young fellow, four thousand years old, bending his head 
in adoration of General Sherman during his memorable 
march from Atlanta to the sea. This is the largest 
tree in the world, measuring two hundred and eighty 
feet in height and thirty-six and one-half feet in diame¬ 
ter. It derived its name in 1879 in honor of the famous 
soldier. Many scientists and authorities estimate the 
age at thirty-six hundred years. Many woodmen of 
the west, particularly in California, declare that the 
General Sherman is six thousand years old. Man can¬ 
not cope with his aboriginal rivals with a fine prospect 
of adding another thousand years or more before he 
bows his head in submission to the scythe of time. 


103 


104 Coal , Oil , Gas and Electricity 

The General Grant is in the National Park, with ten 
thousand sequois associates, and is the second largest 
tree—so gigantic that it would reach from fence to 
fence if set down on a country road and with a height 
about nine times the width of the road. 

Looking down upon us humans, he shakes his 
shaggy head as he beholds our puppet vanity, and con¬ 
templates the disparity of his near maturity, the age 
of trees and the counting of the wood rings of a living 
tree. These cannot be counted until the veteran of 
the countless summers and winters tumbles to the 
ground. Man takes a pencil, some paper and a magni¬ 
fying glass, and calculates the age on the basis of one 
ring for each year. Counting the rings of one of the 
giant trees thirty-five feet eight inches in diameter, 
exclusive of the bark, upwards of four thousand annual 
wood rings were found in which there was no trace of 
decay, after all these centuries of mountain weather. 
In the giant forests of the Sequoia National Park are 
a number of these trees, the General Sherman, the 
Abraham Lincoln and the William McKinley, which 
is approximately three hundred feet high. The Gen¬ 
eral Grant is in a park of the same name, and the 
George Washington, and ten thousand sequois keep it 
company. 

At least four of the big trees are alive and healthy. 
These aristocrats are found only in a narrow strip 
two hundred and fifty miles long on the western slope 
of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Central Cali¬ 
fornia. It has an elevation of five thousand to eight 
thousand feet. This genius consists of many species 
and flourishing trees in the Arctic region among the 
fossil remains, the great species of trees, plants, flow¬ 
ers and foliage of the forests, and the great petrified 
forests of the formative periods, within the area of 
the region of the Rocky Mountains and many states 
throughout our continent with their giant petrified trees 
and fossil remains. One of the inspiring points of the 


Our Natural Resources 


105 


Rocky Mountains is Lookout Mountain, giving a ma¬ 
jestic view of the surrounding country; only from a 
situation like this can one realize the richness of the 
mountain scenery and grandeur of the immense ranges 
stretching far away into the distance. 

Scientists and botanists are studying the com¬ 
pounding and balancing of the liquid fuel substance and 
chemical elements of the various species of the trees, 
plants, flowers and foliage of vegetable life. The solv¬ 
ing and compounding together of the chemical elements 
of the liquid substance all being studied for medical 
purposes, as well as distillation and analysis of the 
billions of the species of vegetable life, trees, flowers 
and plants, beautiful in creation in the realms of na¬ 
ture and its laws during life and growth from the 
formative periods of the earth’s crust, absorbing the 
necessary nourishment and chemical elements and sub¬ 
stance of the earth, during life and environment. 

In conjunction with the required nourishment ?md 
transmutation of the elements of the atmosphere form¬ 
ing the liquid fuel substance, sending forth their abund¬ 
ant foliage the tropical fruits and flowers, and each suc¬ 
ceeding year performed their functions in life, nourish¬ 
ing and sustaining mineral, vegetable and animal life 
from the earth’s crust, and in the formative periods 
forming the many mineral deposits treasured in the 
strata and folds of the earth. And vegetable life, trees 
and their abundantly plumed foliage and delicious fruits 
and plants, with their fragrant odor and beautifying, 
dazzling flowers and lilies of the valleys, sipped the 
dewdrops of the early morn and budded into life and 
flourished in the sweet and charming roses and fragrant 
flowers throughout our great continent. The forests 
within the area of the region of the Rockies and the 
giant trees in their environment with their abundant 
foliage and plumed togas bend their huge heads in 
adoration in memory of the perennial growths of the 
beautiful flowers and foliage in Creation, rendering 


106 Coal , Oil, Gas and Electricity 

their lives to the requirements of nature and its laws, 
to the distillation of the charring action of the heat 
units, yielding and forming many of the mineral de¬ 
posits of the earth, and at the same time absorbing into 
the earth, together with the remaining organic sub¬ 
stances of the liquid fuel and chemical elements of the 
earth, and the transmutation in life and growth each 
succeeding year. In conjunction with the mineral 
chemical elements and substance of the earth, and 
transmutation of life and growths treasured in the 
realms of nature and its laws on our great continent 
were deposited during the ages. 

Everyone knows how the old and grizzled nations 
of the old world look with curiosity upon our govern¬ 
ment, which in 1776 set up its own form of government 
and named itself “The United States of America.” 
Europe called it “The American Experiment.” The 
four million Americans of that day are one hundred and 
six millions today; the thirteen states are forty-eight 
today, and many of them are larger and more power¬ 
ful than the majority of European kingdoms. The 
stripling, now grown to be a giant, has saved the world. 
It made an army four million strong, bridged the At¬ 
lantic that it might pass, plowed the roaring sea in the 
days when the world was upset by the world war, safe¬ 
guarded the perilous task, marked the ocean lanes to 
make safe the way of the mariner, and piled up re¬ 
sources with might and main, representing more might 
and majesty than all the old world kingdoms com¬ 
bined. Heroes of great athletic fame, champions of 
individual liberty and deeds whose hard facts loom 
large, swelled the world’s records of accomplishment 
in the cause of liberty that makes every American 
breast swell with pride. Americans gave up their lives 
for freedom. 

Shall heroes die in vain? They battled for world 
honor and the right of all men to be free, making the 
outcome for liberty inevitable; they fought with the 


Our Natural Resources 


107 


spirit of 1776 for liberty, and with a purpose that won 
the admiration of all mankind. This government, the 
product of one hundred and forty-five years, marks 
the most marvelous years of development ever passed 
through by any nation, and within the winding of the 
web has harnessed up the resources of our great conti¬ 
nent, promoting the development of the mineral, vege¬ 
table and animal life, and perpetually flourishing and 
advancing in obedience to nature and her laws. 

All living objects are created and fully develop to 
maturity by nature. America enjoys the richest heri¬ 
tage ever handed down to any people. It is your heri¬ 
tage and mine, and by united efforts in the spirit of 
humanity and sacrifice we may make our country a 
still greater servant of humanity in obedience to Al¬ 
mighty God and in pursuance to His laws, in the years 
which are before us. 






























































































































































